For this week's homily we continued in the same passage from 1 Peter that we looked at together from last week (1:13-25). Before I recap some of what we said about that I want to talk a bit about the remarks we considered leading into communion.
This Sunday was the first Sunday of Lent so we took up a typical Lenten passage (Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, Matthew 4:1-11). When Jesus enters the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for 40 days the image of Israel wandering in the wilderness for 40 years is clearly in view. The message is clear: Jesus enters into the sufferings of God's people through subjecting himself to the brutality of profound temptation, but Jesus succeeds where Adam and Eve, Israel, and we have failed. He does not give into the temptation to put his own agenda ahead of God's will for him. In this act of solidarity with God's people Jesus prefigures what will later be said of him in the Epistle to the Hebrews: 4:14-16 "Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
Jesus' role as the one who died for our sins is usually the first thing that comes to mind when many of us think about his role as our mediator. But we need to remember that his priestly role in our life also characterized by his patience and sympathy towards us. He cares about our pain, our suffering, and the hardness of our struggles with temptation and brokenness. It is important for each of us to remember this as a cornerstone of our theology of spiritual formation: "no matter what don't think that God don't love you because he does", as one person has put it!
Jesus' suffering with us also tells us that God has chosen to incorporate mysteriously the experience of human suffering and brokenness into himself. The scope of what that accomplishes is beyond our ability to comprehend, due to the limits of our human capacity to understand the mind of God; but it does speak mightily of God's love for us and of his concern for this broken world.
During the homily we came back to some thoughts about holiness. I am indebted to Aaron Kuecker, a member of our Grace community who teaches New Testament at Trinity Christian College, for some of what follows (he wrote an excellent paper on 1 Peter recently). In the section of 1 Peter we are reflecting upon, Peter quotes from Leviticus in his exhortation to his people to be holy: "You shall be holy, for I am holy". This tantalizing citation from the Old Testament gives meaning to Peter's overall discussion of holiness, even as its meaning is made more clear by Peter's gospel saturated remarks on holiness. Peter affirms the heart of the OT's teaching on holiness, recognizing that God's presence among and calling of his people meant that they were holy, set apart from the world, unique, and different. Building on that affirmation, Peter says: "do not be conformed to the desires you once formerly had in ignorance"... and reminds his people that "you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors". So far so good, but the questions remain, conformed to what; and ransomed for what purpose? The answer to these questions can be too ethereal to be of practical help if we just say something like this: we are to be Holy like God is Holy, or we are to live to glorify God, etc. Thankfully Peter brings its meaning down to us - into the midst of our community life together. "The emphasis on virtuous living as a foundation..... is normed by the injunction to 'love one another deeply from the heart' instead of following the desires you formerly had..... (Kuecker, 1 Peter and the Subversion of Social Identity, SBL 2009). What Peter is exhorting us towards is both rich with hope and full of mystery: we are to imitate God in his holiness by loving as he does.
So, what does it mean that our virtuous living is "normed by the injunction to love one another deeply from the heart"? It is most likely that Peter has in mind here that we are to live in the stream of God's love towards us through practicing the disciplines of grace we spoke of in the last homily recap. Living in that love gives us the opportunities to imitate Jesus, while we participate in God's self-giving love to us. I take it to mean that the more we learn to love others as God has loved us the more likely it will be that we will: not steal from neighbors, respect those who have authority over us, dispense authority with compassion, keep our promises to our friends and spouses, desire to forgive our enemies, and the list goes on.
Questions for discussion:
1. Does Jesus' sympathy for you come quickly to mind when you are struggling with temptation? How can you help it come more quickly to mind?
2. If we are to love one another deeply from the heart as the alternative to "un-holy" living, what will help us to say no the "un-holy" living and yes to the loving one another deeply from the heart? What role does Christian community have in all of this?
3. Can you think of a time recently when you realized that, through God's gracious provision, you loved someone deeply from the heart? What did getting to that point look like? Was prayer involved? Was repentance involved? Or, are you just that good? (kidding, smile).
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Holiness as Human Flourishing
This week we returned to 1 Peter and came upon the topic of holiness. "Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.' (1 Peter 1:13-16)."
In general, for many of us an image comes to mind when we think of a holy person. Some may think of gentle old ladies with doilies, sensible shoes, and long dresses, whose gentleness and moral standing set an example for the young which they can aspire to grow into. Some may think of a wise old man who offers sage advice to the young and foolish; he is a teacher of virtue. There is, I think, a popular notion that whatever holiness might be that it belongs to the older and wiser - perhaps because they have grown wise and virtuous with their age or maybe because they are too old to engage in frivolity and lusty living. Still others, have particularly negative visions of Christians claiming to be holy people. For the cynical who quite often have good reasons to be cynical, the word holiness gives them the creeps. What comes to mind for them are so many Christians who say that they take holiness seriously and claim to be "holy" themselves; they stand in opposition to all kinds of sins loudly, and demonize sinners as a group of people with whom they have nothing in common while secretly abusing their children. Or, perhaps the ones imagined are of the variety who decry adultery in the public square while controlling their wives and family with the iron fist of manipulative rage.
So, it is understandable that so many, within and outside the church, have a negative, cynical reaction when they hear Christians talking about holiness. I would suggest that one of the reasons for the negative reaction that so many have is that human beings know deep down that holy living ought to be something more than the images of it that are suggested by various religious groups or those common in contemporary popular culture. Happily and thankfully God thinks so too.
When God talks about holiness in the OT and the NT it is within the context of his great narrative of redemption. After delivering his people from slavery, in the great Exodus, God declares that they are a people set apart, to be the recipients of his covenant of grace and love, destined to grow and flourish as human beings who are set free from slavery and given life. They are his "treasured possession" and "holy nation" (Exodus 19:5-16). So, we note that holiness is an identity created for us by God, a gift, before it is anything else. As his holy people God desires for us to live into our identity and we learn along the way that this is nothing more or less than learning to live into God's gifts; disciplines are the order of the day to be sure, but they are disciplines from and of grace.
Peter is certainly at home in this narrative. He begins his letter by reminding his audience that they have been given "a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable (1:3,4)". As those born into a living hope, they are to "set all their hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring... when he is revealed (1:13)". It is here, at verse 13, that Peter makes a transition from the worshipful acknowledgment of a new identity to a section where he exhorts us to live into this new identity according to disciplines of grace. The first exhortation to his audience is to not be conformed to the desires that formerly governed their lives. Remember, we think that most of these people to whom he is writing were Gentile converts whose desires would have been governed according to the religious, moral, and societal norms of the later Roman empire; suffice it to say that God's way of living prescribed for them would have turned their moral and social words upside down and inside out. (Incidentally, God's holy ways should turn our worlds upside down too.)
The word that Peter uses, which is translated, "conformed", is an interesting one. The word means to take on the form of something: to be shaped in a mold or form. "For Peter, 'desire' and 'holiness' appear as opposing forces each capable of drawing persons into its orbit, conforming human character and actions to its ways and so sculpting human life (Joel Green from his commentary on 1 Peter)."
So, we need to learn to think of our participation in God's holiness as a matter of being shaped and formed by God's ways and not the ways of the gods of this world. On this model becoming holy is not an invitation to grasp frantically at unattainable standards of moral perfection and seek to put them into play. Rather, we are to seek each day to have our imaginations and desires shaped according to the good life that God wants for us, a life of human flourishing.
In this way of thinking, participation in God's holiness is about a perpetual turning (repentance) away from the sculptor that deforms us as God's image bearers and being sculpted by the one in whose image we were made and in whose image we are being redeemed. When we actively seek God's life according to his grace in this way we find our imaginations shaped according to God's holiness and not the desires of this world. One way of contemplating our participation in God's holiness is to consider it as a way of thinking, imagining and being that puts together things that belong together but are usually getting pulled apart in our broken and fallen world. Here are some examples, of raw materials that need to be perpetually shaped and reshaped by the mold of God's holy life for us: sex, desires for material things, participation in and the exercise of power and authority, and one's attitude towards one's own beauty. Our sexual lives and desires need to be shaped by Christ's self-giving love, moving away from the objectification of sex or the temptation to see sex as a kind of drug that exists for the purpose of giving us pleasure (e.g. this is why the New Testament offers marriage as the appropriate context for the full and uninhibited giving of one person to another. Nestled in a promised and hoped for future, husbands and wives learn to give themselves to each other as gifts and help each other develop and flourish as individuals along the way). Our material pursuits for money and wealth must also be shaped by Christ's self-giving love and an imitation of God's generosity in order for those desires to not become little gods we worship. Similarly, the way we approach and possess power needs to be shaped by a desire to advocate for the powerless or we are corrupted by that power. And for the one who possesses great physical beauty, she needs to benefit from the security and warmth of God's love for her so that she will not be defined by her physical beauty but by God's love for her.
We must not forget for a moment that this growth in holiness is a life-long endeavor. Brokenness will continue to effect each of us and ongoing repentance is the key to being shaped by God's life and not the desires of this world. Patience and perseverance are the order of the day, towards others and ourselves!
Questions for discussion:
1. When you hear the word holiness what image comes to your mind? Does the image have positive or negative connotations? What formed this image; where did it come from?
2. We say above that holiness is an identity, and a gift before it is anything else. Do you feel like you have a pretty good handle on this. Can you put it in your own words? When it comes to preaching the gospel to yourself, in what sorts of circumstances do you most need to be reminded of your identity as gift?
3. I mentioned in the homily that a friend of mine had shared with me that he imagined holiness to be an all or nothing thing. He imagined that holy people never sinned so he thought he would leave holiness along. What does it look like to pursue and participate in God's holiness while still struggling with sin? How can you tell whether you are being faithful or sloppy?
4.. What sorts of things can we do on a daily basis to participate more fully in God's holy life he desires for us? How can we join prayer, knowledge, community and other disciplines of grace to help us pursue a life of holiness?
In general, for many of us an image comes to mind when we think of a holy person. Some may think of gentle old ladies with doilies, sensible shoes, and long dresses, whose gentleness and moral standing set an example for the young which they can aspire to grow into. Some may think of a wise old man who offers sage advice to the young and foolish; he is a teacher of virtue. There is, I think, a popular notion that whatever holiness might be that it belongs to the older and wiser - perhaps because they have grown wise and virtuous with their age or maybe because they are too old to engage in frivolity and lusty living. Still others, have particularly negative visions of Christians claiming to be holy people. For the cynical who quite often have good reasons to be cynical, the word holiness gives them the creeps. What comes to mind for them are so many Christians who say that they take holiness seriously and claim to be "holy" themselves; they stand in opposition to all kinds of sins loudly, and demonize sinners as a group of people with whom they have nothing in common while secretly abusing their children. Or, perhaps the ones imagined are of the variety who decry adultery in the public square while controlling their wives and family with the iron fist of manipulative rage.
So, it is understandable that so many, within and outside the church, have a negative, cynical reaction when they hear Christians talking about holiness. I would suggest that one of the reasons for the negative reaction that so many have is that human beings know deep down that holy living ought to be something more than the images of it that are suggested by various religious groups or those common in contemporary popular culture. Happily and thankfully God thinks so too.
When God talks about holiness in the OT and the NT it is within the context of his great narrative of redemption. After delivering his people from slavery, in the great Exodus, God declares that they are a people set apart, to be the recipients of his covenant of grace and love, destined to grow and flourish as human beings who are set free from slavery and given life. They are his "treasured possession" and "holy nation" (Exodus 19:5-16). So, we note that holiness is an identity created for us by God, a gift, before it is anything else. As his holy people God desires for us to live into our identity and we learn along the way that this is nothing more or less than learning to live into God's gifts; disciplines are the order of the day to be sure, but they are disciplines from and of grace.
Peter is certainly at home in this narrative. He begins his letter by reminding his audience that they have been given "a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable (1:3,4)". As those born into a living hope, they are to "set all their hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring... when he is revealed (1:13)". It is here, at verse 13, that Peter makes a transition from the worshipful acknowledgment of a new identity to a section where he exhorts us to live into this new identity according to disciplines of grace. The first exhortation to his audience is to not be conformed to the desires that formerly governed their lives. Remember, we think that most of these people to whom he is writing were Gentile converts whose desires would have been governed according to the religious, moral, and societal norms of the later Roman empire; suffice it to say that God's way of living prescribed for them would have turned their moral and social words upside down and inside out. (Incidentally, God's holy ways should turn our worlds upside down too.)
The word that Peter uses, which is translated, "conformed", is an interesting one. The word means to take on the form of something: to be shaped in a mold or form. "For Peter, 'desire' and 'holiness' appear as opposing forces each capable of drawing persons into its orbit, conforming human character and actions to its ways and so sculpting human life (Joel Green from his commentary on 1 Peter)."
So, we need to learn to think of our participation in God's holiness as a matter of being shaped and formed by God's ways and not the ways of the gods of this world. On this model becoming holy is not an invitation to grasp frantically at unattainable standards of moral perfection and seek to put them into play. Rather, we are to seek each day to have our imaginations and desires shaped according to the good life that God wants for us, a life of human flourishing.
In this way of thinking, participation in God's holiness is about a perpetual turning (repentance) away from the sculptor that deforms us as God's image bearers and being sculpted by the one in whose image we were made and in whose image we are being redeemed. When we actively seek God's life according to his grace in this way we find our imaginations shaped according to God's holiness and not the desires of this world. One way of contemplating our participation in God's holiness is to consider it as a way of thinking, imagining and being that puts together things that belong together but are usually getting pulled apart in our broken and fallen world. Here are some examples, of raw materials that need to be perpetually shaped and reshaped by the mold of God's holy life for us: sex, desires for material things, participation in and the exercise of power and authority, and one's attitude towards one's own beauty. Our sexual lives and desires need to be shaped by Christ's self-giving love, moving away from the objectification of sex or the temptation to see sex as a kind of drug that exists for the purpose of giving us pleasure (e.g. this is why the New Testament offers marriage as the appropriate context for the full and uninhibited giving of one person to another. Nestled in a promised and hoped for future, husbands and wives learn to give themselves to each other as gifts and help each other develop and flourish as individuals along the way). Our material pursuits for money and wealth must also be shaped by Christ's self-giving love and an imitation of God's generosity in order for those desires to not become little gods we worship. Similarly, the way we approach and possess power needs to be shaped by a desire to advocate for the powerless or we are corrupted by that power. And for the one who possesses great physical beauty, she needs to benefit from the security and warmth of God's love for her so that she will not be defined by her physical beauty but by God's love for her.
We must not forget for a moment that this growth in holiness is a life-long endeavor. Brokenness will continue to effect each of us and ongoing repentance is the key to being shaped by God's life and not the desires of this world. Patience and perseverance are the order of the day, towards others and ourselves!
Questions for discussion:
1. When you hear the word holiness what image comes to your mind? Does the image have positive or negative connotations? What formed this image; where did it come from?
2. We say above that holiness is an identity, and a gift before it is anything else. Do you feel like you have a pretty good handle on this. Can you put it in your own words? When it comes to preaching the gospel to yourself, in what sorts of circumstances do you most need to be reminded of your identity as gift?
3. I mentioned in the homily that a friend of mine had shared with me that he imagined holiness to be an all or nothing thing. He imagined that holy people never sinned so he thought he would leave holiness along. What does it look like to pursue and participate in God's holiness while still struggling with sin? How can you tell whether you are being faithful or sloppy?
4.. What sorts of things can we do on a daily basis to participate more fully in God's holy life he desires for us? How can we join prayer, knowledge, community and other disciplines of grace to help us pursue a life of holiness?
Monday, February 8, 2010
Knowing What Time It Is 1 Peter 1:3-12
This week we talked directly about a prominent theme in 1 Peter: suffering because of being identified with Jesus Christ. It is really hard for us to enter into the theological thought world in which 1 Peter was written and even more difficult for us to relate to the socio-cultural circumstances in which Peter's young Christians found themselves. It is the best scholarly consensus that Peter's people to whom he wrote were not yet in the midst of the full-on persecution of the Roman empire. It is too early for that. What they were suffering from - and this is particularly difficult for those of us who benefit from the pluralism of Western democracies to understand - is a profound and sustained social bullying from their neighbors. Luke Johnson captures the situation here: "Persecution and martyrdom, after all, have a certain clarity and comfort. Lines of allegiance are obvious. However difficult the choice, it need be made only once. But scorn and contempt are slow working acids that corrode individual and community identity. Social alienation is not a trivial form of suffering. Persecution may bring death but with meaning. Societal scorn can threaten meaning itself, which is a more subtle death (Luke Timothy Johnson)."
It is important to note that when Peter approaches the question of suffering he does not engage in an apologetic addressing the issue of why suffering is allowed by a good and all powerful God. This sort of theological exercise can be found elsewhere in the Scriptures but Peter here addresses the specific issue of suffering because of one's faith in Christ, which he regards as part and parcel of being identified with Christ in a world that resists his rule and grace. Moreover, Peter teaches us that to be a part of God's mission to bring the world to Christ through the gospel one must suffer rejection as Jesus suffered rejection from the gods of this world and those who worship them. This is because the pattern of God's redemptive work from the time of the fall to the present is a pattern of working through suffering to bring glory (e.g. the Exodus, the Exile, etc.) This is at least part of what Peter means when he talks about the Spirit of Christ testifying in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ: "Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours made careful search and inquiry, inquiring about the person or time that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated, when it testified in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and the subsequent glory. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you.....". This theological insight is a different way of saying what Jesus said about the OT on the road to Emmaus: "Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures (Luke 24:25...)". What Jesus is teaching his disciples and what Peter is saying is that God's pattern of redemption in the Old Testament, to bring glory through suffering, is the prophetic pattern that Jesus' suffering and glory fulfill. Peter is reassuring these new converts that God's mission in the world is executed not in spite of suffering but through suffering and that their suffering - due to their identification with Jesus Christ - means that they are on the right side of history; they have become a part of God's mission to bring his redemptive love into the world.
We titled this homily, "Knowing What Time It Is", because that, in a sense, is what Peter is wanting for his people: to know the time. Throughout this long introduction and blessing, Peter has chosen to call attention to time, again and again. Suffering is for a little while, there is an inheritance awaiting God's people, and the last day is anticipated as a time of joy because Jesus' praise and glory will be our praise and glory. Finally, the prophets are invoked in order to link the present situation of suffering to God's work in the past, specifically to help these Gentile converts find their place in God's ancient story of redemption. These new Christians in what is now Western Turkey are encouraged to see their suffering as evidence of their identity with Jesus Christ. His suffering brings to fruition God's pattern of working through suffering to bring redemption and glory to this fallen world. In this time (for a little while) they and we are to regard suffering as evidence that we are a part of God's work.
We are far removed from the time and place of this letter on the one hand. On the other hand the clock hands have not moved too much when it comes to what we should expect regarding suffering because of our identity with Christ. Because we enjoy the religious freedom afforded to us in our socio-political setting most of us do not suffer the acids of scorn and contempt in the same way as did Peter's people. However, we must be careful that we don't take advantage of our socio-political setting to hide our identity with Christ like chameleons. In my opinion there is no one-size-fits-all formula to follow in order to be a perfect disciple of Jesus, suffering the perfect amount of scorn, etc. Each person must ask God's Spirit to search her heart and come to her own conclusions about whether or not she is a chameleon or not. Here is what I wrote in my devotional as I pondered this topic:
"If you want to be popular tell everyone what they want to hear; learn how to ingratiate yourself to others. Exploit insecurities in other people so that they need your praise and approval to feel OK about themselves. Remove the suspicion that you are a sycophant by criticizing people who are sycophants and doing so very loudly. Alternately, carve out for yourself a position of power in relationship to other people. Make them need your gifts or make them need a relationship to your persona in order to have currency with others. From this position you can tell them whatever you want without worrying about whether what you say is true or loving because your dependent community will not push back at you for fear of losing you as a patron. But if you want to suffer in this life - identify with Jesus and tell everyone by the example of your life and the words from your lips that sin and evil have been conquered on the cross and that this is the place where God must be met if any of us are to have hope. Tell everyone by your influence (not by coercion) that you believe that the line between good and evil runs through each human heart and that each of us has played a sinful role in the breaking of the peace of God's world. When we live in this identity we will suffer; and when we do we are to respond with the love of Jesus, not returning evil for evil but good for evil."
Questions for discussion:
1. In our socio-political setting, due to our religious freedom and influence, is it possible for us to invite scorn and contempt for positions we take as Christians but not actually because of our identity with Christ and Christ crucified? Examples?
2. In our socio-political setting, what does it look like for us to be scorned simply because of our identity with the message of the gospel? Examples?
3. Many non-Christians in the U.S. think they are rejecting the gospel when they are really rejecting aspects of Christendom. What do you think many have in mind when they are rejecting "aspects of Christendom"? Can you think of creative ways to help people encounter the simple message of the gospel? What role do you think your church community can play in supporting you in introducing the gospel to others? Examples?
It is important to note that when Peter approaches the question of suffering he does not engage in an apologetic addressing the issue of why suffering is allowed by a good and all powerful God. This sort of theological exercise can be found elsewhere in the Scriptures but Peter here addresses the specific issue of suffering because of one's faith in Christ, which he regards as part and parcel of being identified with Christ in a world that resists his rule and grace. Moreover, Peter teaches us that to be a part of God's mission to bring the world to Christ through the gospel one must suffer rejection as Jesus suffered rejection from the gods of this world and those who worship them. This is because the pattern of God's redemptive work from the time of the fall to the present is a pattern of working through suffering to bring glory (e.g. the Exodus, the Exile, etc.) This is at least part of what Peter means when he talks about the Spirit of Christ testifying in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ: "Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours made careful search and inquiry, inquiring about the person or time that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated, when it testified in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and the subsequent glory. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you.....". This theological insight is a different way of saying what Jesus said about the OT on the road to Emmaus: "Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures (Luke 24:25...)". What Jesus is teaching his disciples and what Peter is saying is that God's pattern of redemption in the Old Testament, to bring glory through suffering, is the prophetic pattern that Jesus' suffering and glory fulfill. Peter is reassuring these new converts that God's mission in the world is executed not in spite of suffering but through suffering and that their suffering - due to their identification with Jesus Christ - means that they are on the right side of history; they have become a part of God's mission to bring his redemptive love into the world.
We titled this homily, "Knowing What Time It Is", because that, in a sense, is what Peter is wanting for his people: to know the time. Throughout this long introduction and blessing, Peter has chosen to call attention to time, again and again. Suffering is for a little while, there is an inheritance awaiting God's people, and the last day is anticipated as a time of joy because Jesus' praise and glory will be our praise and glory. Finally, the prophets are invoked in order to link the present situation of suffering to God's work in the past, specifically to help these Gentile converts find their place in God's ancient story of redemption. These new Christians in what is now Western Turkey are encouraged to see their suffering as evidence of their identity with Jesus Christ. His suffering brings to fruition God's pattern of working through suffering to bring redemption and glory to this fallen world. In this time (for a little while) they and we are to regard suffering as evidence that we are a part of God's work.
We are far removed from the time and place of this letter on the one hand. On the other hand the clock hands have not moved too much when it comes to what we should expect regarding suffering because of our identity with Christ. Because we enjoy the religious freedom afforded to us in our socio-political setting most of us do not suffer the acids of scorn and contempt in the same way as did Peter's people. However, we must be careful that we don't take advantage of our socio-political setting to hide our identity with Christ like chameleons. In my opinion there is no one-size-fits-all formula to follow in order to be a perfect disciple of Jesus, suffering the perfect amount of scorn, etc. Each person must ask God's Spirit to search her heart and come to her own conclusions about whether or not she is a chameleon or not. Here is what I wrote in my devotional as I pondered this topic:
"If you want to be popular tell everyone what they want to hear; learn how to ingratiate yourself to others. Exploit insecurities in other people so that they need your praise and approval to feel OK about themselves. Remove the suspicion that you are a sycophant by criticizing people who are sycophants and doing so very loudly. Alternately, carve out for yourself a position of power in relationship to other people. Make them need your gifts or make them need a relationship to your persona in order to have currency with others. From this position you can tell them whatever you want without worrying about whether what you say is true or loving because your dependent community will not push back at you for fear of losing you as a patron. But if you want to suffer in this life - identify with Jesus and tell everyone by the example of your life and the words from your lips that sin and evil have been conquered on the cross and that this is the place where God must be met if any of us are to have hope. Tell everyone by your influence (not by coercion) that you believe that the line between good and evil runs through each human heart and that each of us has played a sinful role in the breaking of the peace of God's world. When we live in this identity we will suffer; and when we do we are to respond with the love of Jesus, not returning evil for evil but good for evil."
Questions for discussion:
1. In our socio-political setting, due to our religious freedom and influence, is it possible for us to invite scorn and contempt for positions we take as Christians but not actually because of our identity with Christ and Christ crucified? Examples?
2. In our socio-political setting, what does it look like for us to be scorned simply because of our identity with the message of the gospel? Examples?
3. Many non-Christians in the U.S. think they are rejecting the gospel when they are really rejecting aspects of Christendom. What do you think many have in mind when they are rejecting "aspects of Christendom"? Can you think of creative ways to help people encounter the simple message of the gospel? What role do you think your church community can play in supporting you in introducing the gospel to others? Examples?
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
dry bones: Live!
This week we returned to the powerful metaphor of new birth, returning specifically to this passage in 1 Peter 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead....
Last week we talked about new birth as a conversion of the imagination (see last week's recap). This week we focused on our need for God's power to change our lives (new birth and perpetual revivification). We began thinking of this theme when we reflected on the stirring poetry of Ezekiel's vision of the valley of the dry bones as our call to worship. In this passage Israel is pictured as so many dry bones. God speaks to the prophet and asks him if those bones can live. The prophet responds by putting the issue back to God - Lord you know if they can. Then the Lord challenges the prophet to prophesy to the dry bones to live; he does and they do. They become living people again as God breathes his life into them. The vision comes to a close with the promise of God to bring salvation to Israel just as surely as he gave life to the dry bones in the vision. The sign that is given by which Israel will know God has kept his promise to give them salvation is resurrection (Ezekiel 37:12....).
Ezekiel had no idea that the resurrection he was pointing to was the resurrection of the Son of God, but that is exactly what those who witnessed the resurrection of Jesus tell us again and again in the New Testament. Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:19-20 that the same power of God that brought back Jesus from the dead is now at our disposal as we live into and participate in the new life of Jesus Christ. This is the same mysterious truth that Peter is telling us using the metaphor of new birth; we are given new birth THROUGH the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (see passage above).
We concluded our time together on Sunday by asking ourselves: so what? The metaphor of new birth is powerful and stirring and can move us like Ezekiel to have hope where we have lost hope or perhaps never had it all. But in order for this good news to revivify us we need to "live into" the power of Jesus' resurrection. But how does one "live into" the power of Jesus' resurrection? I suggest we need a pattern to follow, similar to a pattern a dressmaker uses to sew a dress, or what a woodworker uses to cut her wood into the pieces that will become a beautiful new cabinet. The pattern given in Scripture that we are to live our lives by - in all things - is the same pattern by which Jesus lived his life: Philippians 2:5.... "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God, as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.....". When we live according to this pattern we are not trying to imitate Jesus in a wooden way; rather, this pattern we are called to live into is a pattern we can participate in through the power of the Holy Spirit, as we participate in the very life of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Living into Jesus' pattern of self-giving love (life in the form of a slave) = living into his resurrection life, bringing our lives into the power of the new birth, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Application:
Here is what it might look like in the mundane moments of our lives. Let's say you or I are struggling with selfishness towards our friends or loved ones, or lust is threatening to capture our imagination and displace the affections of our hearts, or we don't have patience towards our children. Whatever the temptation may be, the pattern we are to live into is the same.
* confess to God that we are powerless in our own lives and patterns of selfishness to resist the temptation
* prophesy (preach) to ourselves and to each other that God desires to give life to our dry bones which are powerless
* ask God to give us the power to live into the pattern of Jesus' life, death and resurrection - a pattern of tireless, self-giving love
* repent of the occasions when we do not do this as we should and ask God to draw us, in the joy of forgiveness, back into the pattern of Jesus' self-giving love
Discussion Questions:
1. Are you quick to confess your powerlessness to God? Under what circumstances are you more likely to confess your powerlessness before God?
2. Do you place yourself in a position throughout your days to be "preached to" that God desires to give us newness of life? What does this look like for you, especially in the midst of a busy schedule?
3.Do you repent of the occasions when you do not ask God to help you with your struggles? Do you think God's grace is sufficient for you when you fail to avail yourself of his power? Does God ever give up on us? What role does God's grace and forgiveness play in moving us toward him when we have distanced ourselves?
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead....
Last week we talked about new birth as a conversion of the imagination (see last week's recap). This week we focused on our need for God's power to change our lives (new birth and perpetual revivification). We began thinking of this theme when we reflected on the stirring poetry of Ezekiel's vision of the valley of the dry bones as our call to worship. In this passage Israel is pictured as so many dry bones. God speaks to the prophet and asks him if those bones can live. The prophet responds by putting the issue back to God - Lord you know if they can. Then the Lord challenges the prophet to prophesy to the dry bones to live; he does and they do. They become living people again as God breathes his life into them. The vision comes to a close with the promise of God to bring salvation to Israel just as surely as he gave life to the dry bones in the vision. The sign that is given by which Israel will know God has kept his promise to give them salvation is resurrection (Ezekiel 37:12....).
Ezekiel had no idea that the resurrection he was pointing to was the resurrection of the Son of God, but that is exactly what those who witnessed the resurrection of Jesus tell us again and again in the New Testament. Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:19-20 that the same power of God that brought back Jesus from the dead is now at our disposal as we live into and participate in the new life of Jesus Christ. This is the same mysterious truth that Peter is telling us using the metaphor of new birth; we are given new birth THROUGH the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (see passage above).
We concluded our time together on Sunday by asking ourselves: so what? The metaphor of new birth is powerful and stirring and can move us like Ezekiel to have hope where we have lost hope or perhaps never had it all. But in order for this good news to revivify us we need to "live into" the power of Jesus' resurrection. But how does one "live into" the power of Jesus' resurrection? I suggest we need a pattern to follow, similar to a pattern a dressmaker uses to sew a dress, or what a woodworker uses to cut her wood into the pieces that will become a beautiful new cabinet. The pattern given in Scripture that we are to live our lives by - in all things - is the same pattern by which Jesus lived his life: Philippians 2:5.... "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God, as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.....". When we live according to this pattern we are not trying to imitate Jesus in a wooden way; rather, this pattern we are called to live into is a pattern we can participate in through the power of the Holy Spirit, as we participate in the very life of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Living into Jesus' pattern of self-giving love (life in the form of a slave) = living into his resurrection life, bringing our lives into the power of the new birth, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Application:
Here is what it might look like in the mundane moments of our lives. Let's say you or I are struggling with selfishness towards our friends or loved ones, or lust is threatening to capture our imagination and displace the affections of our hearts, or we don't have patience towards our children. Whatever the temptation may be, the pattern we are to live into is the same.
* confess to God that we are powerless in our own lives and patterns of selfishness to resist the temptation
* prophesy (preach) to ourselves and to each other that God desires to give life to our dry bones which are powerless
* ask God to give us the power to live into the pattern of Jesus' life, death and resurrection - a pattern of tireless, self-giving love
* repent of the occasions when we do not do this as we should and ask God to draw us, in the joy of forgiveness, back into the pattern of Jesus' self-giving love
Discussion Questions:
1. Are you quick to confess your powerlessness to God? Under what circumstances are you more likely to confess your powerlessness before God?
2. Do you place yourself in a position throughout your days to be "preached to" that God desires to give us newness of life? What does this look like for you, especially in the midst of a busy schedule?
3.Do you repent of the occasions when you do not ask God to help you with your struggles? Do you think God's grace is sufficient for you when you fail to avail yourself of his power? Does God ever give up on us? What role does God's grace and forgiveness play in moving us toward him when we have distanced ourselves?
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
a rebirth of the imagination
Recently there have been a lot of interviews with folks involved with new film based on the life of Charles Darwin, Creation. It is a film adaptation of the biographical novel, Annie's Box, by Randal Keynes, Darwin's great-great grandson. Annie is the name of Charles and Emma Darwin's daughter who died at the age of 10. Keynes, the film adaptation of his book , and many Darwin scholars agree that the tragic death of Annie to chronic illnesses was a turning point for Charles Darwin in his relationship to the Christian faith. Always very dubious of Christian doctrine, Darwin seemed to decisively step away after losing their daughter. As I listened to Randal Keynes talk about this last week on NPR my first response was that is probably exactly what I would have done; I might have had that empathetic thought before becoming a father - not sure - but now as a father I think my empathy for his response is more profound. I was thinking about all of this as I was preparing for our homily this past week which dealt with the powerful metaphor of new birth.
In 1 Peter, Peter talks about our relationship with God in this way: "By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead". Joel Green in his commentary on 1 Peter suggests that we think of new birth as a conversion of the imagination: "life events do not come with self-contained and immediately obvious interpretations, we conceptualize them in terms of imaginative structures we take to be true, normal and good...". In other words and put a bit differently, we tend to look at our lives and the world according to the story of the world we take to be true, normal and good. Some may say they do not subscribe to any narrative which could offer insight into the course of history, the future, or our individual lives. That certainly may be the case looking at it from one point of view, but is it not also the case that we all make decisions about what to do based on what we think in the moment is the right thing to do? Do we not also look for meaningful perspectives by which to evaluate major events in our lives? Many of those hearing Peter's words proclaimed in worship had just suffered a profound identity crisis (see previous homily recap). They had converted to the Christian faith from their pagan world and had been promptly ostracized by Roman society. Roman society had no place for Christians and ostracizing would eventually lead to out-right persecution. It is within this context that Peter tells his people the true story of what God is doing in the world. God's story of the world is grounded in an ancient promise to a band of nomads: the promise that God would always be their God and that they would always be his people. In the making of this promise to Abraham God also purposed that through his relationship with Israel he would bring salvation to the world. This salvation is pictured in the prophets as forgiveness of sins, redemption, the making of all things new, the conquest and eradication of evil, and the bringing forth of shalom, God's new peace for this fallen world. In short hand fashion Peter tells us that this story has come to a climax in the life, death and (especially) the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This story of what God is doing in the world speaks directly to the question of life's meaning, purpose and direction for those in Peter's original audience and for us. Jesus brings God's purposes to fruition in the world in a way that the powers that be in the world refuse to see as good news. Strength, grace, mercy, and victory, are brought forth through the suffering of Jesus: not a story we like to call our own. And when we think of the world according to limits of human reason and our fatigued imaginations we don't want to see God reveal himself in this way either. Yet this is God's way of talking about hope and what he is doing to bring redemption to us and our world: hope comes to us by the promise of resurrection and resurrection comes to us through suffering.
For those who lost everything to become Christians, for those of us who suffer from the thorns and thistles of this fallen world, for those who suffer profound loss (e.g. Darwin's story of loss above), the gospel confronts all other stories of the world which would deny hope or offer hope falsely. The radical and paradoxical power of the gospel story is not simply that God brings hope in spite of suffering but that he does it through suffering. This is the story that tells us the truth about our lives and the life of this world. May God grant us a revivification of our imaginations that we would live in the light of this truth.
1. Though this is not right at the heart of our homily from this week I think it is an important question so I am putting it out there for your consideration: do you regard empathy as an important attribute and one that reflects the heart of God as shown in the gospel? If not, why not? If you do, do you think very often about becoming more empathetic or asking God to make you more empathetic? Do you think becoming more empathetic could help you tell God's story more authentically to those who do not yet accept it their story?
2. How would you tell God's story of what he is doing in the world to someone who had just lost a child or loved one. Imagine that they had asked you to talk to them about where you get your hope from? How, in your own words, would you answer them: presuming that they do not yet accept God's story of the gospel?
3. Does coming to see our trials in this world in light of Jesus' story mean we must be able to say what specifically we have "learned" from our experience of suffering? What are we supposed to "learn" from suffering?
4. What are some stories we are often tempted to believe in our socio-cultural setting that are not the gospel and try cheaply to take the place of the gospel story in our imaginations?
In 1 Peter, Peter talks about our relationship with God in this way: "By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead". Joel Green in his commentary on 1 Peter suggests that we think of new birth as a conversion of the imagination: "life events do not come with self-contained and immediately obvious interpretations, we conceptualize them in terms of imaginative structures we take to be true, normal and good...". In other words and put a bit differently, we tend to look at our lives and the world according to the story of the world we take to be true, normal and good. Some may say they do not subscribe to any narrative which could offer insight into the course of history, the future, or our individual lives. That certainly may be the case looking at it from one point of view, but is it not also the case that we all make decisions about what to do based on what we think in the moment is the right thing to do? Do we not also look for meaningful perspectives by which to evaluate major events in our lives? Many of those hearing Peter's words proclaimed in worship had just suffered a profound identity crisis (see previous homily recap). They had converted to the Christian faith from their pagan world and had been promptly ostracized by Roman society. Roman society had no place for Christians and ostracizing would eventually lead to out-right persecution. It is within this context that Peter tells his people the true story of what God is doing in the world. God's story of the world is grounded in an ancient promise to a band of nomads: the promise that God would always be their God and that they would always be his people. In the making of this promise to Abraham God also purposed that through his relationship with Israel he would bring salvation to the world. This salvation is pictured in the prophets as forgiveness of sins, redemption, the making of all things new, the conquest and eradication of evil, and the bringing forth of shalom, God's new peace for this fallen world. In short hand fashion Peter tells us that this story has come to a climax in the life, death and (especially) the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This story of what God is doing in the world speaks directly to the question of life's meaning, purpose and direction for those in Peter's original audience and for us. Jesus brings God's purposes to fruition in the world in a way that the powers that be in the world refuse to see as good news. Strength, grace, mercy, and victory, are brought forth through the suffering of Jesus: not a story we like to call our own. And when we think of the world according to limits of human reason and our fatigued imaginations we don't want to see God reveal himself in this way either. Yet this is God's way of talking about hope and what he is doing to bring redemption to us and our world: hope comes to us by the promise of resurrection and resurrection comes to us through suffering.
For those who lost everything to become Christians, for those of us who suffer from the thorns and thistles of this fallen world, for those who suffer profound loss (e.g. Darwin's story of loss above), the gospel confronts all other stories of the world which would deny hope or offer hope falsely. The radical and paradoxical power of the gospel story is not simply that God brings hope in spite of suffering but that he does it through suffering. This is the story that tells us the truth about our lives and the life of this world. May God grant us a revivification of our imaginations that we would live in the light of this truth.
1. Though this is not right at the heart of our homily from this week I think it is an important question so I am putting it out there for your consideration: do you regard empathy as an important attribute and one that reflects the heart of God as shown in the gospel? If not, why not? If you do, do you think very often about becoming more empathetic or asking God to make you more empathetic? Do you think becoming more empathetic could help you tell God's story more authentically to those who do not yet accept it their story?
2. How would you tell God's story of what he is doing in the world to someone who had just lost a child or loved one. Imagine that they had asked you to talk to them about where you get your hope from? How, in your own words, would you answer them: presuming that they do not yet accept God's story of the gospel?
3. Does coming to see our trials in this world in light of Jesus' story mean we must be able to say what specifically we have "learned" from our experience of suffering? What are we supposed to "learn" from suffering?
4. What are some stories we are often tempted to believe in our socio-cultural setting that are not the gospel and try cheaply to take the place of the gospel story in our imaginations?
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
God's Great Band of Beloved Nomads
This past Sunday at Grace we began a study of 1 Peter. There is good scholarship and tradition to support this letter as written by the same Peter we meet in the gospels as a disciple of Jesus. If Simon Peter is the author of the letter then it was written sometime before his martyrdom in 64 or 65 AD. We understand the letter to be a circular letter to the churches in Asian Minor, modern day Western Turkey. As a circular letter it would have been read in the different churches by those early church leaders who would have also helped unpack its meaning.
At the beginning of the letter Peter introduces the themes which will dominate the rest of epistle. This letter, perhaps more than any other in the New Testament, is concerned with how Christians are to understand their identity in relation to the culture in which they live. The words that Peter employs to help these relatively new converts to Christ understand their new identity are borrowed from the Old Testament. Aliens and sojourners of the diaspora is evocative of the period in the life of ancient Israel when God's people were dispersed throughout Babylon, after Babylon had defeated Israel in war. In this context, the designation of alien status did not carry a positive connotation but was a designation to get shed of as soon as possible. However, in Peter's hands, the status of alien becomes a positive metaphor of identity with Christ in his Kingdom and suggests a dignified vocation of living as Jesus' representatives to the pagan world: a world which Peter calls Babylon (his byword for Rome).
Peter's presentation of alien status as a position of honor would have been a gospel-paradox of tremendous encouragement to those pagan converts in the churches to whom he wrote, because upon their conversion they had lost their status, honor, and identity as Romans. This is difficult for us to understand from our point of view. Pluralism within Western Democracy has allowed many of us to suffer relatively little social ostracism as Christians even if we converted later in life. Also, many of us think of status in relationship to relative degrees of wealth which was not how status was meted out in the ancient social world in which Peter's flock converted. In Peter's Roman world, status and honor was wrapped up in being a good Roman citizen. But to be a good citizen meant that one must at least give lip service to worshiping Caesar and confess him as savior and lord. Refusing to take place in public confessions and civil worship would result in at least ostracism if not worse - eventually the worse would come in the form of the great persecutions. Once honor was lost through ostracism, there were no avenues left within Roman society to regain honor as confessing Christians. One was left to move on the periphery of normal society. This is why Peter's paradox - that the freshly minted alien status of his parishioners was actually itself a position of high honor - was such a profound word of encouragement. This is also, partly, why he begins his letter by talking about the issue of Christian identity.
Given our distance from Peter's world, what are some take-away applications for us?
* Because we are not ostracized in the same way these 1st century Christians means that we have to be careful to think imaginatively about how our basic personal identity is in Christ and not in any social category created for us by this world or our society. This is a tall order and there is not a simple, one-size-fits-all, description of what this looks like.
* We must be careful as privileged Western Christians to find ways to identify concretely with our sisters and brothers who are ostracized or persecuted by their societies in other parts of the world.
* We must take great care to find our identity in Christ and not in some manifestation of Christendom
* We must refuse to allow the status afforded to someone based on their socio-economic standing in this world to determine our relationship to them. Whether a fellow human being who does not share our faith or a sister or brother in Christ, we must always approach her based on our identity with Christ and from the point of view of our own alien status.
Questions for application:
1. Do you feel marginalized by others because you are a Christian? How can you tell if it is because of your faith or if it might be for some other reason? Is coming to understand your position of honor as an alien representing Christ to the world an encouragement to you? If so, how? If not, why not?
2. Can you think of an occasion when you alienated yourself from someone in the name of Christ but later came to realize that you alienated yourself for other reasons but blamed it on Jesus?
3. What is an example of mis-locating one's identity in some manifestation of Christendom rather than in Christ? What harm comes from this mistake?
4. How does this discussion challenge you when you think of those in our own setting and around the world who are marginalized from society because of their faith or for other reasons?
At the beginning of the letter Peter introduces the themes which will dominate the rest of epistle. This letter, perhaps more than any other in the New Testament, is concerned with how Christians are to understand their identity in relation to the culture in which they live. The words that Peter employs to help these relatively new converts to Christ understand their new identity are borrowed from the Old Testament. Aliens and sojourners of the diaspora is evocative of the period in the life of ancient Israel when God's people were dispersed throughout Babylon, after Babylon had defeated Israel in war. In this context, the designation of alien status did not carry a positive connotation but was a designation to get shed of as soon as possible. However, in Peter's hands, the status of alien becomes a positive metaphor of identity with Christ in his Kingdom and suggests a dignified vocation of living as Jesus' representatives to the pagan world: a world which Peter calls Babylon (his byword for Rome).
Peter's presentation of alien status as a position of honor would have been a gospel-paradox of tremendous encouragement to those pagan converts in the churches to whom he wrote, because upon their conversion they had lost their status, honor, and identity as Romans. This is difficult for us to understand from our point of view. Pluralism within Western Democracy has allowed many of us to suffer relatively little social ostracism as Christians even if we converted later in life. Also, many of us think of status in relationship to relative degrees of wealth which was not how status was meted out in the ancient social world in which Peter's flock converted. In Peter's Roman world, status and honor was wrapped up in being a good Roman citizen. But to be a good citizen meant that one must at least give lip service to worshiping Caesar and confess him as savior and lord. Refusing to take place in public confessions and civil worship would result in at least ostracism if not worse - eventually the worse would come in the form of the great persecutions. Once honor was lost through ostracism, there were no avenues left within Roman society to regain honor as confessing Christians. One was left to move on the periphery of normal society. This is why Peter's paradox - that the freshly minted alien status of his parishioners was actually itself a position of high honor - was such a profound word of encouragement. This is also, partly, why he begins his letter by talking about the issue of Christian identity.
Given our distance from Peter's world, what are some take-away applications for us?
* Because we are not ostracized in the same way these 1st century Christians means that we have to be careful to think imaginatively about how our basic personal identity is in Christ and not in any social category created for us by this world or our society. This is a tall order and there is not a simple, one-size-fits-all, description of what this looks like.
* We must be careful as privileged Western Christians to find ways to identify concretely with our sisters and brothers who are ostracized or persecuted by their societies in other parts of the world.
* We must take great care to find our identity in Christ and not in some manifestation of Christendom
* We must refuse to allow the status afforded to someone based on their socio-economic standing in this world to determine our relationship to them. Whether a fellow human being who does not share our faith or a sister or brother in Christ, we must always approach her based on our identity with Christ and from the point of view of our own alien status.
Questions for application:
1. Do you feel marginalized by others because you are a Christian? How can you tell if it is because of your faith or if it might be for some other reason? Is coming to understand your position of honor as an alien representing Christ to the world an encouragement to you? If so, how? If not, why not?
2. Can you think of an occasion when you alienated yourself from someone in the name of Christ but later came to realize that you alienated yourself for other reasons but blamed it on Jesus?
3. What is an example of mis-locating one's identity in some manifestation of Christendom rather than in Christ? What harm comes from this mistake?
4. How does this discussion challenge you when you think of those in our own setting and around the world who are marginalized from society because of their faith or for other reasons?
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
The Grace of God has Appeared
Titus 2:11-14:
This week I want to come back again to these verses in Titus. We remarked last week that this passage has long been associated with the liturgy of Christmas Sunday. The wording of the verse invites us to contemplate the wonder of the incarnation - the Grace of God has appeared, it has been unveiled to us in the incarnation of the Son of God. In this one shorthand phrase, the grace of God has appeared, Paul is summarizing the promises of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: his promise to renew the covenant, to bring the good news of salvation to all peoples. On Christmas Sunday we considered the context in which Paul wrote these words. Good history and tradition point to Paul writing this letter to Titus who was planting churches on the isle of Crete. In the religious traditions of Crete it was claimed that the Greek god, Zeus, had been a man before he was a god - a man who lived and died in Crete and whose tomb was known. This great man was made into the god Zeus after he died, promoted to deity, because of his great deeds of benevolence as a human being among the Cretans. Into this culture which knew this religious story of how Zeus came to be Zeus Paul brings the gospel of the God who reveals himself in Jesus. The connection between deity and humanity, arguably a universal human longing and which was so fancifully imagined in the Cretan story of Zeus, is met by the proclamation that the great creator God has taken on human flesh, "the grace of God has appeared". Whereas the story of a man who is promoted to deity because of acts of benevolence is met by the proclamation that God lives to freely give himself to others, "he it is who gave himself for us" in order that those who know him and grow in his grace may become a people who come to resemble God's son in their thoughts, desires and actions.
New Testament commentators have also wondered whether Paul's interesting way of talking about the grace of God being that which trains us to become more like Jesus ("the grace of God has appeared..... training us...." 2:11...) might also be worded with the Cretan context in mind. Earlier in the letter he cites the 6th century Cretan philosopher and poet, Epimenides, who said of Cretans that they were always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons" (Titus 1:12). The description of Cretans as vicious brutes, or as wild beasts - as some translations have it and as Epimenides said it - liars, and idle bellies is certainly confrontational language but it is not the language of one who demonizes those who are outside the community of faith. Rather, Paul with the motivation and heart of an apologist and evangelist, cites a voice from within the culture who cries out against moral bankruptcy in order to establish a contact point between the gospel and the culture. The gospel message from Paul and the other evangelists in the New Testament always clearly points out that sin is the heart condition shared by all of us and that no one is any better than anyone else. Moral bankruptcy and beastliness is the way of the human heart apart from God's grace. It is to this shared human condition that the grace of God comes, to train us and make us new. It was not uncommon within the religious mind of the ancient Greek speaking world to think and speak about moral formation accompanying the passage of boyhood to manhood where the "wild beasts" are tamed and formed into men. In the ruins of the city of Gortyn (the Cretan city which Christian tradition holds to be the first site of Titus' missionary activity) there is found in the iconography of one of the temples a goddess holding in both of her hands wild beasts. In her hands they are perfectly tame. Among the votive offerings to her are little statues of young male warriors - wishing from her to be tamed, disciplined or trained into manhood. We, of course, don't know if Paul or Titus would have had this specific thing in mind when they spoke together of the grace of God and its power to tame the beast in all of us but we do know that it would not have been uncommon in that thought world to talk about moral formation as training received from gods and goddesses. And so Paul the evangelist and Paul the apologist come together to suggest and answer this question: by what or who and how can the beast be tamed? By goddesses or gods? By a man who became a god? Paul says no. The beast is tamed through the power, love and grace of the God who became a man so that human beings could become more like God: God's grace has appeared in Jesus Christ, "training" human beings to become more like the God who gave himself for us.
Questions for discussion:
1. We have suggested above that we should not demonize people who do not share our faith no matter how offensive we might find their moral life and choices. Name some bad things that come from demonizing people, especially those who are do not share our faith? Perhaps in your answer, think about what it might do to you, and what impression it might give about Christ and Christianity to those on the outside looking in.
2. The grace of God training us to renounce sin and embrace God's love and life suggests a process of interaction with God's grace over time and suggests that we must stive to be disciplined in our "training" regimen. What does it mean to be disciplined with regard to our participation in God's gracious provisions? Can you think of discipline without either cringing on the one hand (for those of us who are not terribly disciplined by nature) or without, on the other hand, being proud and self-congratulatory (for those of who are very regimented by nature)? How do grace and discipline dance together so that love is what is felt?
3. Is it a comfort to you to think of our connection with God as resting on God's gracious provision in the incarnation rather than imagining that we need to reach up to God in order to have a contact with the divine? How can this profound truth encourage you when you are deep in the throes of temptation's darkest hour?
4. By what impoverished means do we try to tame our beasts? What sort of means do we employ instead of God's rich grace in the gospel? How can we more surely abandon those impoverished means and rely more fully on God's grace?
This week I want to come back again to these verses in Titus. We remarked last week that this passage has long been associated with the liturgy of Christmas Sunday. The wording of the verse invites us to contemplate the wonder of the incarnation - the Grace of God has appeared, it has been unveiled to us in the incarnation of the Son of God. In this one shorthand phrase, the grace of God has appeared, Paul is summarizing the promises of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: his promise to renew the covenant, to bring the good news of salvation to all peoples. On Christmas Sunday we considered the context in which Paul wrote these words. Good history and tradition point to Paul writing this letter to Titus who was planting churches on the isle of Crete. In the religious traditions of Crete it was claimed that the Greek god, Zeus, had been a man before he was a god - a man who lived and died in Crete and whose tomb was known. This great man was made into the god Zeus after he died, promoted to deity, because of his great deeds of benevolence as a human being among the Cretans. Into this culture which knew this religious story of how Zeus came to be Zeus Paul brings the gospel of the God who reveals himself in Jesus. The connection between deity and humanity, arguably a universal human longing and which was so fancifully imagined in the Cretan story of Zeus, is met by the proclamation that the great creator God has taken on human flesh, "the grace of God has appeared". Whereas the story of a man who is promoted to deity because of acts of benevolence is met by the proclamation that God lives to freely give himself to others, "he it is who gave himself for us" in order that those who know him and grow in his grace may become a people who come to resemble God's son in their thoughts, desires and actions.
New Testament commentators have also wondered whether Paul's interesting way of talking about the grace of God being that which trains us to become more like Jesus ("the grace of God has appeared..... training us...." 2:11...) might also be worded with the Cretan context in mind. Earlier in the letter he cites the 6th century Cretan philosopher and poet, Epimenides, who said of Cretans that they were always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons" (Titus 1:12). The description of Cretans as vicious brutes, or as wild beasts - as some translations have it and as Epimenides said it - liars, and idle bellies is certainly confrontational language but it is not the language of one who demonizes those who are outside the community of faith. Rather, Paul with the motivation and heart of an apologist and evangelist, cites a voice from within the culture who cries out against moral bankruptcy in order to establish a contact point between the gospel and the culture. The gospel message from Paul and the other evangelists in the New Testament always clearly points out that sin is the heart condition shared by all of us and that no one is any better than anyone else. Moral bankruptcy and beastliness is the way of the human heart apart from God's grace. It is to this shared human condition that the grace of God comes, to train us and make us new. It was not uncommon within the religious mind of the ancient Greek speaking world to think and speak about moral formation accompanying the passage of boyhood to manhood where the "wild beasts" are tamed and formed into men. In the ruins of the city of Gortyn (the Cretan city which Christian tradition holds to be the first site of Titus' missionary activity) there is found in the iconography of one of the temples a goddess holding in both of her hands wild beasts. In her hands they are perfectly tame. Among the votive offerings to her are little statues of young male warriors - wishing from her to be tamed, disciplined or trained into manhood. We, of course, don't know if Paul or Titus would have had this specific thing in mind when they spoke together of the grace of God and its power to tame the beast in all of us but we do know that it would not have been uncommon in that thought world to talk about moral formation as training received from gods and goddesses. And so Paul the evangelist and Paul the apologist come together to suggest and answer this question: by what or who and how can the beast be tamed? By goddesses or gods? By a man who became a god? Paul says no. The beast is tamed through the power, love and grace of the God who became a man so that human beings could become more like God: God's grace has appeared in Jesus Christ, "training" human beings to become more like the God who gave himself for us.
Questions for discussion:
1. We have suggested above that we should not demonize people who do not share our faith no matter how offensive we might find their moral life and choices. Name some bad things that come from demonizing people, especially those who are do not share our faith? Perhaps in your answer, think about what it might do to you, and what impression it might give about Christ and Christianity to those on the outside looking in.
2. The grace of God training us to renounce sin and embrace God's love and life suggests a process of interaction with God's grace over time and suggests that we must stive to be disciplined in our "training" regimen. What does it mean to be disciplined with regard to our participation in God's gracious provisions? Can you think of discipline without either cringing on the one hand (for those of us who are not terribly disciplined by nature) or without, on the other hand, being proud and self-congratulatory (for those of who are very regimented by nature)? How do grace and discipline dance together so that love is what is felt?
3. Is it a comfort to you to think of our connection with God as resting on God's gracious provision in the incarnation rather than imagining that we need to reach up to God in order to have a contact with the divine? How can this profound truth encourage you when you are deep in the throes of temptation's darkest hour?
4. By what impoverished means do we try to tame our beasts? What sort of means do we employ instead of God's rich grace in the gospel? How can we more surely abandon those impoverished means and rely more fully on God's grace?
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