More than I ask or imagine. . .

Entering into the Darkness of Love: A Maundy Thursday Reflection

The term Maundy Thursday comes from the Latin for "New Commandment" Mandataum Novum.  It comes from Jesus on that night before he was betrayed and arrested John 13:34 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." 

Jesus will demonstrate the full extent of his love in washing the disciple's feet and eating with them.  But his love does not end there. Through this night, Jesus will go through that lonely valley as he anticipates his calling to the Cross beginning with the arrest, the stripping, the flogging, the trials, and the shame.  It is this dark time that Jesus enters into, and that we must enter into as well.

Jesus enters into this new commandment, and this is only a preview of what he is doing by enduring the Cross. The call of Maundy Thursday is not just to cognitively remember but to re-enter the drama of that night.  If you have ever really loved someone, you hate to see them go through pain.  What is even more painful is when they are walking on a path that will eventual pain.  Love in this sense is what Paul alludes to in 1 Corinthians "Love suffers long" (King James). Love must experience this darkness.

We must understand the call of love is always a path to service and suffering.  We must examine our loves. Do we love those God has placed in our life with such a long suffering? Do we understand what we label as love is just infatuation to be terminated when we do not "feel" the same way again?  Have we refused the call of love? Would we rather 'fix' people than walk with them, weep with them, and even be hurt by them?

Behind all of these questions is the example of the Great Shepherd who has gone before us who endured the Cross fully entering into the darkness of love.   The effect of entering into this darkness means that light has dawned.  It is no longer darkness because the light of love has illuminated everything. Our Shepherd is good and calls to us, saying, "Follow Me".

Follow Him, this Maundy Thursday.

What We Really Mean When We Say, "I Know God Forgives Me, but I Just Can't Forgive Myself"

You have done it again.  Last time you swore you would not do this again. It may be a burst of anger, an addiction, a lie spoken in fear, or a hurting of someone you love or yourself.  Immediately the dark thoughts come, "how can there be any fear of God in my eyes?"  You can start beating yourself up making promises to yourself and others about "never again".  After a while the surmounting broken promises to yourself make you think that you are unusually sinful, broken, and lost.   You may even tell a friend, "Yes, I understand God forgives me, but I just can't forgive myself!"

Actually, this quote really shows that you do not understand that God forgives you in Christ.  When you can't forgive yourself, you are really saying, "I can't believe that I have done that!"  It really comes back to you, your performance, and your pride.  Actually, when you are at your worst having blown it and know that there is no good in you, then and only then, are you ready for Grace. 

Grace turns your gaze away from your failures, your broken life, and your pride to look deeply at the Triumphant and Relentless Love of God in Christ.  Psalm 51 and Psalm 103 are great songs of joy in the midst of getting caught or being at the bottom.  Notice in these psalms how the focus is on the "plenteous" grace of God in Psalm 103 and joy in Psalm 51.   Sin promises the world, but only our God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ can really deliever on his promises that we may enter his rest and joy.  So we can boldly claim His promises, we can come, be forgiven, and find joy.  There will be consequences to train you, but they are signs of God's loving discipline as a son or daughter. Those hard times are part of his love because in the end there will be joy.

This Holy Week, know that you are forgiven and be at peace.

This is Your Brain on Stories.... Any questions?

 

I remember those "Partnership for a Drug Free America" commercials, about your brain on drugs.  A powerful metaphor for me watching as a kid.  That may be why I became a Waffle House cook in college, hmm...

But a recent article from the NY Times suggests that metaphors, fiction, and imagination are interpreted as real experiences for those who read them.  Here is an except

The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated. Keith Oatley, an emeritus professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto (and a published novelist), has proposed that reading produces a vivid simulation of reality, one that “runs on minds of readers just as computer simulations run on computers.” Fiction — with its redolent details, imaginative metaphors and attentive descriptions of people and their actions — offers an especially rich replica. Indeed, in one respect novels go beyond simulating reality to give readers an experience unavailable off the page: the opportunity to enter fully into other people’s thoughts and feelings.

This is helpful to show how we are shaped and learn through story.  Metaphor also provides rich texture for our imagination and the shaping and forming us into different people after we have read a story. I have experienced the magical world of Harry Potter and faced evil, so now I can face evil in my own heart with the same bravery.

Several questions and connections rise to the front of my mind, What stories am I giving my sons?  What stories made me who I am? Why are we so rationalistic in our communication of theology instead of imaginative?  Can vast reading help us become more compassionate people? And quickly, this blog could get really really long.

My take away is a question too. A question that I must force upon myself is: Do I teach to encounter people with God's Story?  I hope too. In fact, that is my prayer.  I want sermons and sacraments to not be metaphors for something else, but the real thing, an encounter with Christ.  Sort of like a college student who worked at Waffle House frying eggs as a high because the metaphor got into his bones.

What I Saw in Orlando: The Theology Project #fellowshippres

Below is the Theological Foundation session at the Covenanting conference of the Fellowship of Presbyterians.  I many ways I felt as though I had come home theologically with an emphasis on a Reformed and Sacramental Theology of Mission. The vision of this group is be the church in a new way and committing to foster further theological reflection. They take seriously to be Reformed and always Reforming.  There is also a call to be pastors in a way that takes seriously that endeavor.  The demands of pastoral ministry together with theological reflection and applying it to new frontiers will be draining.  To meet all of these demands, the Church must recover what Eugene Peterson calls the Contemplative Pastor in community.  

I need this type of community to read Scripture deeply and often, to read Historical theology, and to have accountability as we pray for our congregations, traditions, and our families.  This new order is like the orders of old where, like Franciscans, we commit to a way of life to bring renewal to the world-wide body of Presbyterians.  

I hope you get a chance to watch this 40 minute video, but if you cannot please was from minute 30 on to understand this way of life, this new order.

 

Jerry Andrews & Laura Smit: The Theology Project from Fellowship of Presbyterians on Vimeo.

A Year with Calvin and Barth: Compare, Contrasting, and Learning

New Year's Resolutions are a time for me to decided my reading for the next year.  I have been trying to decide between reading Calvin's Institutes or Barth Dogmatics.  I have perused Barth's first two volumes as I have followed Daniel Kirk's blog. But when it came down to it, I could not decide. 

So it's both!  It should be a good exercise as I understand what it means to be Presbyterian.  Also, Barth had a tremendous respect for Calvin, here is what Barth said about Calvin in a letter. Also, by starting Barth on the Doctrine of God, I can compare with Calvin as he starts the Institutes with the Doctrine of God.

John Calvin is a cataract, a primeval forest, a demonic power, something directly down from Himalaya, absolutely Chinese, strange, mythological; I lack completely the means, the suction cups, even to assimilate this phenomenon, not to speak of presenting it adequately. What I receive is only a thin little stream and what I can then give out again is only a yet thinner extract of this little stream. I could gladly and profitably set myself down and spend all the rest of my life with just Calvin.

I pray that this year of reading along with my Bible study and reading would shape and form me into a man who loves Christ with my whole life blessing my family, church, and community.  So, I will have to cut the number of novels or sports books that I would like to read, but it will be worth it.

What will you be reading this year?

The Injustice, The Scandal, and Lamentations: Making Sense of Penn State in Prayer

 

 

   Living in Central PA now, there is one story that everyone is talking about the Penn State  scandal.  In preaching the book of Lamentations, I am seeing this whole scandal in a new light.  Lamentations details the destruction of the city Jerusalem and the punishment that was brought on by their injustice and sin.  While the destruction is terrible, the reason that is has happened is detailed in Lam 3:

34      To crush underfoot
         all prisoners in the land,

35      to deny a man his rights
         before the Most High,

36      to deprive a man of justice—
         would not the Lord see such things?

The answer of course, is "Yes He will see and He will act."  Therefore, when justice happens God has seen and acted.

My sermon last week was on praying prayer of vengence, known as the imprectory psalms.  Praying that God would bring justice is so vital to those who do not have a leading voice.  God hears those prayers and brings justice. I used the example for someone who has been abused. Tolerence or sentimental notions of God being only a tolerate God will not give hope.  God will bring judgment to those who oppress and victimize. He will make things right again. Only God who loves deeply and passionately will see and act in response to the prayers of the victimized and abused.

The Penn State story broke Saturday up here but no one knew the details until Monday or late Sunday.  I have seen friends go through the whole process of greif. They see JoePa fired and the end of everything for the program that dominated sports life here. They see the program they love turn to something diabolical.  Those abused children have cried out and God has heard their prayer.  Finally the abuser will be brought to justice and the whole system needs to be disrupted.

Below is a video of Matt Millen, a former Penn State football player reacting to the scandal.  As he processes what has happened he breaks down around minute 4:00 of the clip.  He says, "When we can no longer protect our children, then we as a society are pathetic".  This scandal is not just about one man's violent abuse or one university's inaction. This has far reaching implications in our whole society, from our obessions with sports to our families breaking down allowing for children to be preyed upon.  We are sick, and we are pathetic as a society. This is an opportunity for us to repent to examine our lives and call out that God would change our hearts and the hearts of others.  We should also pray that God would end such victimization of our children and bring justice to those who have no justice.  Only before the throne of God can we begin to let this change us. We also give honor to the victims by allowing it to change us. Let justice come as Jesus makes all the wrongs right.

O God, would you fogive us as a people and individually in ways that we have contriubuted to this culture where the most vulnerable are the most violated.  Have mercy, Lord, and may Jesus' victory triumph in this whole event and in our world's history.

 

My Credo Part Three: Judgement and Mercy in Christ

As continuing this series on my Credo, I wrote about the Christology and Trinitarian views of the Primitive Church before the split between East and West.  I love that ecumenical team work but as you will read below, I have the Holy Spirit proceeding from both the Father and Son as the Western church has taught.  I take that position knowing that the Filioque Controversy behind that statement. The question is where in the Nicene Creed the Western Church added the phrase filioque to the original "the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son." I firmly believe that both sides of the church were talking past each other as Christians have been known to do. Another lesson in church history why we need one another as Christians.

I believe Jesus is the eternal Son of God eternally begotten by the Father.  The Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Son and the Father.  This is the Trinity that is united as one Godhead in three distinct persons all equal in power and glory.  The Son is the image of the invisible God while at the same time he is fully human.  He was born of the Virgin Mary living a life that succeeded where humanity had failed in the past, then died on the Cross as a propitiation for humanity’s rebellion and mine.   Then, the Father declared him to be the Son of God with power by raising Him from the dead by the Holy Spirit.   The Gospel message is that Christ died and rose again to defeat death. He is coming again to make everything right bringing even more peace and prosperity as Heaven and Earth become one.  Thus, humanity and creation are brought into the fellowship of the Trinity after the world is purified through Final Judgement.

I firmly believe that Judgement was poured out on the Cross of Christ, but there is still a final judgement coming.  I am not a universalist and I do not think that all paths lead to God.  As I will divulge later, I am a Post-Millenialist so I believe at the end there will be universal salvation because there will be no one left on Earth except the church.  BB Warfield in The Plan of Salvation calls this the escathological 'all'.  Salvation is collective, personal, universal and particular in Christ, "rolling as a mighty ocean in its fulness over me".

My Credo Part Two: I Believe in God the Father Almighty

 

This is my opening paragraph on my statement of faith. I followed the Apostle's Creed, and as always being anchored in History always wins.

"I believe in God the Father who created all things invisible and visible.  I believe that God’s Creation was good revealing the way things are supposed to be in Peace (Shalom), comprehensive human flourishing.  Every human being lives in God’s world with a longing to know the Creator behind all beauty, pleasure, love, and goodness.  I believe that humanity committed cosmic rebellion, sin, against God’s created Peace.  This rebellion infected every part of humanity and left no part of the human heart or mind untouched, thus we are totally depraved.  God began putting this beloved Creation back together through Abraham, Isaac, Israel, and ultimately and finally, Jesus and his people, the Body, which is his Church."

It is a very simple story, but one that we often forget.  Being a story teller, I wanted to embellish and say more about the Creation Narrative and poetry.  I wanted paint the picture, but then I could have turned in the Bible and just highlighted the whole thing. 

In these types of statements, what you do not say also speaks volumes.  In the area of science and faith, I do think you do damage to force the text to say 6-24 hour days.  I believe the notion of everyone saying that is has to be is already living in the Scientific world and submitted to it.  Science does not give me my values, my worth, my purpose, my family, or my story.  So why would I want to put science there in The Story.  Science is supposed to be about hypothesis and repeatable events, but this is difficult with history. The question of origins is about values.  Is this God's world? Yes  Do we owe him honor and worship living lives in obedience because this is his World and he calls the shots? Yes.  We are not animals helpless to our appetites, and we are not clocks knowing precision.  The Story is accurate and qualitative and its authority wants to do more in us and through us than just tell time. The Story, God's Truth in Scripture, wants us to worship and love with a full thankful heart.

Prayer, the Water, and the Cup: Curse turning to Blessing in the Cross

Today, I have been reflecting on prayer, that strange and, yet, very simple, action that we often take for granted.  I reflected on unanswered prayers, and the prayer that seems the most common is about my sin, as I continue to learn repentance.  I so often pray that God would take away my sin, not just forgive it but that I would no longer struggle with it.

The thought came to me, what would life be like then if that prayer was answered.  Ideas of tranquility, serenity, and ease bounced around my mind.  But then, those things look nothing like the Cross of Jesus.  Then as I mentally kick myself for having prayed this silly little prayer. I am reminded of Christ's prayer in the Garden.  "Let this cup pass." In some ways this prayer is largest unanswered prayer in Scripture. The prayer here is the beginning of Jesus Christ becoming a curse for his people.

Whether it is the struggle with sin, disappointment, or even suffering, we find ourselves in the same Garden with Jesus, being baptized in the same way he was baptized on the Cross, drinking the cup of the wrath of God to the dregs. Then, by his power all those things become life, fruit of the Spirit, baptism for the remission of sins, and the cup of blessing and fellowship.

So somehow, these prayers are about finding myself in Christ and shaping me into him so that I become by grace crucified as a living sacrifice. God calls us into his death therefore he will also call us to his glorious life in his victory over death.  So then, my words, my posture, my participation in the sacraments and my story is all wrapped in His Death.  Perseverance then is perseverance into death, so prayer is working life into that deadness.  It is the battle zone in the fight for life.

Stop your Convicting Jesus Powers, Eugene Peterson. It's too much! But I do need it.

Casually reading Eugene Peterson is oxymoron. I tried to do that with his book The Contemplative Pastor.  I happened upon this paragraph, and it hit a little to close to home.

"It was a favorite theme of CS Lewis that only lazy people work hard. By lazily abdicating the essential work of deciding and directing, establishing values and setting goals, other people do it for us; then we find ourselves frantically, at the last minute, trying to satisfy a half dozen different demands on our time, none of which is essential to our vocation, to stave off the disaster of disappointing someone." p 19.

Wow, let's just say that has made me reevaluate what it means to be an un-busy pastor.  Thanks be to God that He gives me little windows like this to see my sin and trust in Christ for radical forgiveness. Now, I can see it, own it, and turn joyfully to live my vocation.