It’s About the Grey Matter

Something happened to humans when Adam sinned – and it has mostly to do with corrupting the quality of human thinking that God gave to Adam and Eve when He created them. After the fall, they are still creatures made in God’s image – as are we – but they no longer have the “grey matter power” to live in relationship with self, each other, God, and creation as He intended to be true for humans – and neither do we! The subsequent stories of Cain killing Abel, the flood of Noah story, and the Tower of Babel story all testify to the brutal reality that something happened when sin entered the world. What the Hebrew Scriptures would later describe as shalom was no longer present.

The great prophet Isaiah reminded Israel on behalf of God about this very issue when he said, again on behalf of God, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.” And later in that same text, the Lord says, “So shall my Word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:8-11)

Jesus’ conversation with the rich man in the story of The Rich Man and Lazarus includes Abraham saying to the rich man in reply to a question about his brothers, “They have Moses and the prophets.” When the rich man replies “But if someone from the dead were to come . . .” Abraham insists that if they won’t listen to Scripture, they won’t listen to a miraculous word from the grave. (Luke 16:19ff)

Could it really be about the grey matter?

Romans 12:1,2 is perhaps second only to John 3:16 when it comes to memorized passages of Scripture. The phrase we should think about from that text today is “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” What else could Paul mean other than as we use God’s Word, which has “gone out from His mouth” to restore the quality of human thinking that God gave to Adam and Eve at creation, our lives can be transformed. That is the kind of metamorphosis that in nature changes an ugly caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly, and in the kingdom of God, changes a sinner into a saint!

In Colossians Paul talks about this in terms of “letting the peace of Christ rule us,” “the Word of Christ dwell in us richly” and “whatever we do – word or deed – do in the name of Jesus.” (Colossians 3:15-17) In Ephesians, it comes out in the idea of “be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:15-21)

It can’t be either mere culture or mere coincidence that when Jesus first appeared to His disciples in John 20, His first words were “Peace be with you.” (20:19) and a week later when Thomas was with the group, His first words were “Peace be with you.” (20:26) John’s “first day of the week” focus in his testimony about Jesus’ resurrection, along with the last words of Jesus from the cross being “It is finished” (19:30) perhaps point us to the reality that in Jesus, a new creation has entered human history and the ancient concept of shalom was now ours to take up as God’s gift to His creation.

But the gift of peace – self, others, God, and creation – doesn’t appear to be the story line of human history right now. New creation requires a new way of thinking – and that new way of thinking is described by Paul in Romans 12 as “renewing our minds.” When that happens, shalom can become our word and the more we expand the reign of Christ in our world, the more it will become the story line of human history. 

Grey matter seems to be important!

Kingdom People Doing Kingdom Things

I don't know how long I've been saying something to the effect that "it is all about kingdom people doing kingdom things." Long enough that when my adult children are in a room where I'm speaking, they seem to anticipate the phrase before I do. But I'm not embarrassed by that - it truly is all about kingdom people doing kingdom things.

Just as I was handing out our first test in Biblical Interpretation on Monday of this week, I got a message that, despite my tendency to ignore the iPhone while in class, I checked. It was from a former student, Laurie Wardle, telling me that earlier Monday morning, another former student, Scott Gamel, had unexpected died of a massive heart attack. (Somehow I think Scott might have chuckled a bit when he realized that he had just interrupted my Interp test!)

Today I've been looking at Facebook with an uncommon interest in what people are posting. Lots and lots of Scott's friends have posted sweet notes about Scott's life and notes wanting Vicki and the six sons they brought into this world to know that prayers are being offered in their behalf. When moments like this come barging into our lives, one thing we know for sure is that the body of Christ knows that it is time for us to get on our knees. There's comfort in that thought all by itself.

Scott was at Point (then ACC, but Scott loved the college and supported its ministry and on his FB page you see "Point University") during a time when there were lots of great young men who would marry equally great (or greater - smart boys marry up) young women who have truly become kingdom people doing kingdom things. I'm thinking right now about posts I've seen from people like Buck and Laurie Wardle, Mike Thompson, Chris Rollins, and lots and lots of other people who are stunned by the untimely loss of such a great kingdom worker. Seeing what they are writing reminds me of what a blessed life I have had to have been a part of their lives at some level.

Scott was a model of what I hope Point continues to produce - both in ministry degree programs and other degree programs where students may not have vocational ministry in mind, but understand that when all is said and done, we're all ministers. He believed it was all about Jesus. Period. No more. No less. He refused to let the gospel, anchored in Jesus and oozing grace, be encumbered by the nonsense of legalism, tradition, and the rest of that stuff that keeps us from transforming the world. Despite his die-hard Alabama Roll Tide view of life, I think he actually thought it was possible for Auburn fans to go to heaven - but only by the grace of God! Young guys like Scott, Buck, and Chris - and lots of others - have established kingdom outposts in very different places in the United States - but somehow with the same message: Jesus. Period. No more. No less.

It's so rewarding from my vantage point in life to see them post on Facebook about their churches and ministries, their families, their kingdom outlooks, and life in general. The occasional email or response to some blog I've written more than makes the day. It's hard for me to imagine why God would bless me with the opportunity to have been a part of the lives of young Christians like this - but I'm incredibly thankful He has.

I've been thinking about Scott - and Vicki and their sons, their church family, all their family and friends from all around all day. I can't help but think of a little verse from Jeremy Camp's Give Me Jesus.

When I come to die
When I come to die
Oh, when I come to die
Give me Jesus

It wouldn't surprise me if Scott loved that song as I do. But even if he never heard of it - it was his song.

Thank God for Scott Gamel - a kingdom person who did kingdom things!

Troubling Reminders and The Breaking of Dawn

Last week in my Biblical Interpretation class, we were finishing up a section titled, “Is Scripture the Trustworthy Word of God?” The subtitle to that section is “If it is, what do we do with it?” A part of how that second question is to be answered is to realize the transforming power of Scripture in the heads and hearts of those who follow Jesus. The exact quote from the PowerPoint slide at this point was, “With Scripture – the extant story – in head and heart, believers are to the world what Jesus was to Israel.”

We spent a little time talking about “the world” to which we are called to bring the transforming message of Jesus. I asked a simple question – “What’s going on in the world right now?” The answer wasn’t quite so simple. Students mentioned issues like the outbreak of Ebola in Africa, the questions about justice in Ferguson, Missouri, the Ukraine versus Russian story, the Hamas versus Israel story, and of course the beheading of two American journalist by ISIS. Most of the students in this class aren’t old enough to remember the details of September 11, 2014 – but someone mentioned the anniversary was coming up – and that the events happening right now were cause for concern.

Perhaps we will never know exactly all the motivation for the horrific events of 9/11, or for that matter, what could motivate ISIS to do such cruel and inhumane acts against two Americans. Even more troubling is the fact that if what we read is true, often Christians are being targeted by terrorists groups simply because of their faith in Jesus. 

Our culture’s insistence on remembering 9/11 every year along with the reality of today’s headlines provide for us troubling reminders of how desperately our world needs the Jesus story to become its story. To His own disciples, Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, so send I you.” (John 20:21) Only in our willingness to be Jesus to the world will His story become its story.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote much of Ethics while in concentration camps in Germany during the last years of his life. I think that if he and I compared “troubling reminders,” I would quickly concede and admit that he faced far greater struggles as a believer than I have. But that isn’t to say that the rather long and troubling list of items from my class when I asked them to tell me about our world isn’t challenging. 

In the mist of his struggles, Bonhoeffer said “The night is not yet over, but already the dawn is breaking.” (Ethics, page 17) He said that in the context of understanding our call as followers of Jesus is to be Jesus to the world. “Only the form of Jesus Christ confronts the world and defeats it. And it is from this form alone that there comes the formation of a new world, a world which is reconciled with God.”  (17)

I reminded my students that when we allow Scripture to be what God intended it to be and in our wrestling with its meaning and application in our own lives, “it allows us to move from mere story line about a man named Jesus to an agenda for the world which transforms it into the Kingdom of God.”

Just thinking about the memory searing images so many of us witness on September 11, 2001 is a troubling reminder of how evil humans apart from Jesus can be. Reading the front page of yesterday’s  newspaper likely does the same. The world without the Jesus story embedded in its core being has no way to live beyond the old, beyond death, beyond sin.

But what we know – because the Jesus of trustworthy Scripture told us – is that God’s mission is to renew and restore creation to its God-intended purpose. In the person of Jesus, God has inaugurated that mission which will one day be fully consummated in the glory of His reappearing.

Until then, surrounded by troubling reminders, let us not forget what Bonhoeffer understood – The night is not yet over, but already the dawn is breaking.”

Hot House Flowers

In his masterful little book on the value of Christian community, Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, “Human love breeds hot-house flowers; spiritual love creates the fruits that grow healthily in accord with God’s good will in the rain and storm and sunshine of God’s outdoors.” (page 37) That statement is in the midst of a discussion on the importance of having the courage to “be ready to leave him (the unbeliever) alone with this Word for a long time.” (page 36) That idea is, from Bonhoeffer’s perspective, the right alternative to taking “pleasure in pious, human fervor and excitement.”

Last spring, for some special occasion that slips my memory at the moment, I sent my wife a “hot-house” grown – in full bloom – hydrangea. It was beautiful and, I thought, the perfect flower to send, since I love hydrangeas and want as many different kinds as I can manage to plant in my yard. So, once the flowers began to fade, I planted it in a great spot for a hydrangea. I did all the necessary soil amenities required when you plant something in North Georgia red clay.

For a while, in the cool spring time days where plenty of rain showers kept it moist, the hydrangea looked pretty good. But as the days grew warmer and the rain showers grew less frequent, my poor little hydrangea suffered. Only because I kept it watered, put some mulch around it, and otherwise babied it along has it survived.

Not ten feet from that particular hydrangea, I planted one that wasn’t from a hot house – but to use Bonhoeffer’s language, was from “the rain and storm and sunshine of God’s outdoors.” It has grown to triple its original size – and I’ve seldom needed to water it. When it comes to plant life, apparently “the real world” does a better job than “the artificial world” of a hot house.

I think there is a lesson there for us, especially if we are interested in being a part of God’s work to renew and restore creation through the body of Christ. Rather than retreating to the safety of spiritual hot houses, we need to be willing to trust that the Word – in all its meaning – can and will transform us and the world around us. Raising my children in an artificial hot house of pseudo-spirituality is a formula for failure. Seeing the church as little more than a safe haven from the godless world around us is a guarantee that we won’t change that godless world. Failing to learn about the whole world – yes, even science and the liberal arts – means that we continue in our cute little individualism that reeks of the same hypocrisy modeled by the Pharisees and was so disgusting to Jesus.

The gospel – the good news that in Jesus of Nazareth God has kept His promise to renew and restore creation – isn’t a very good hot-house plant! But it thrives in the “rain and storm and sunshine of God’s outdoors.” But we have to be courageous enough to trust that it will do just that!

Reading through the first six chapters of Acts this week has reminded me again of just how true that is. It is a remarkable story of kingdom growth. The story starts out with 11 guys still unsure what the kingdom is all about and by the time you get to the end of section one (6:7), Luke can only describe it by saying “the Word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”  (NRSV)

Interestingly, there are a few occasions in this first section of Acts where “the world” is on the attach when it comes to the body of Christ. But when that happens, it only makes the church grow more rapidly and encourages it members to be more courageous in their witness. Only when there is an “internal, retreat mode” problem (Acts 5:1-12) do we see a bit of a bump on the road to advancing the Kingdom of God.  Using Bonhoeffer’s language, it was a “hot-house flower” moment.

If Paul could lay down the gauntlet to the Roman Emperor in the opening words of Romans by declaring “I am not ashamed of the gospel, it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also the Greek,” (Romans 1:16) it seems to me that we ought to have confidence in that Word to renew and restore creation to its God-intended purpose. 

That can’t happen in the hot-house world of retreat, but only in the courageous world of “the rain and storm and sunshine of God’s outdoors.”

Limping

Most often the idea of “having a limp” is indicative of some sort of problem with your hip, knee, ankle, or foot.  If the limp is bad enough, we end up at the end of an orthopedic doctor’s treatment plan to get rid of it .

For a moment, let’s think about an alternative kind of limp. Faced with the daunting reality of having to come face to face with his brother Esau, Jacob finds himself in a very difficult place in life. (Genesis 32) From Esau’s point of view, Jacob would not be named “Brother of the Year” by any set of reasonable standards. It has been a while since they have seen each other, and an ocean of water has gone over the proverbial dam.

Jacob sends messengers to tell Esau that he was returning home with lots of indicators of success. The messengers return with a message to Jacob – Esau is coming to meet him with 400 men. Jacob suddenly becomes quite the prayer warrior, and sends valuable gifts from his flocks and herds to Esau. He hopes to make up for his previous ill treatment of Esau. Jacob sends his wives and children and herds to a place of safety.

All alone in the midst of darkness and night Jacob wrestles all night with a man he does not know, who has a Name the man won’t reveal. As daybreak approaches two things are different about Jacob. He has a limp because his wrestling partner “touched his hip;” and his name is no longer Jacob (the one who supplants) but Israel (the Prince of God). 

When the new day dawns, Israel looks up and sees his brother, Esau, approaching. In what could have been a reality show hit titled “Worst Family Reunion Ever,” everything turns out remarkably different. There is a lot of hugging, crying, bowing, and giving. Two potential enemies somehow manage to walk away from the family reunion brothers, not enemies.

Having never had such a “face to face” encounter with God – Jacob names the place Peniel, meaning “I have seen God face to face” – I still think we have potential for an “alternative kind of limp,” and maybe even a name change.

We have this very mysterious, sometimes a bit odd, book we call the Bible. Maybe we prefer the term Scripture. Or Holy Bible. Or Holy Scripture. But it claims for itself to be the trustworthy word of God. If it is that – and I believe that it is – then in my study of it (which sometimes could be described as a wrestling match as I think like the world in arguing with the One who is not of this world) I’m thinking that sometimes I am going to walk away with a limp. In fact, if I’m not walking away with a limp, then I’m wondering if I am really encountering God after all.

Maybe the great sin of our age is that we, both theological liberals and theological conservatives, have often tried to tame the Bible into some ordinary book that soothes and encourages us at every turn, when it really is anything but ordinary and is often a bit caustic and in our face. 

That’s the stuff of name changes and life-long limps!

Come . . . And Find Rest!

On Friday, we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a document that claimed for us, as Americans and not Brits, the right to experience “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  One need only to Google the word “stress” to realize (if you don’t already) that the realization of those “unalienable rights” can’t be found in the kingdoms of the world, including our own.

In Matthew’s story of Jesus’ life and ministry, we find Jesus speaking more authentically to such human desires when He says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, NRSV)

Having had the privilege to travel in a number of countries where it is more difficult to follow Jesus than it is in the culture into which I was born, I’m not one to discount the privilege of growing up in a nation where “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are core values for our government. Yet that same privilege of travel has reminded me that the real gift of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is not found in nations, but in Christ alone. 

Just before Jesus offers “all” the invitation to come to Him, even those who “are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,” He reminds us that what he came to bring was not just for the “wise and intelligent,” but in fact was revealed to little children. He also makes it more than clear that His unique relationship with the Father was such that our only access to God was through the Son, whose mission it was to reveal the Father to all willing to come. 

The “blessing of our birth” as Americans, is not that some form of government can really provide “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” but that we have the freedom to pursue the One who can provide such blessing to us. To the extent that we expect our government – either in its current expression or in our remembrance of some more idyllic form in the past – to offer what only Jesus offers, we will experience the “weary and heavy burden” kind of life that creates stress. To the extent that we confuse a form of government created by man with the gospel of Jesus, we fail to be faithful to the One who calls us.

Jesus invites us “to come and learn.” In Matthew’s story of Jesus, learning – being a disciple – seems always to be front and center. When I accept that invitation and begin to learn of a kingdom that is not of this world, a kingdom that moves beyond the present with its constant awareness of the day of His appearing, life changes. This surely is why Paul could say “For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:17, 18, NRSV) 

So if you feel a bit “weary” and it seems as though you are carrying a “heavy burden” on this anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, remember the freedom we have is best appreciated when we recognize that its best blessing is the freedom to pursue the One who truly is “gentle and meek” and can offer us “rest for our souls.”