click on believe and follow the instructions

The doctrine of Redemption is the fundamental mystery of our holy religion- whosoever believeth in it shall not perish but have everlasting life in which to try to understand it. (Ambrose Pierce)

Q: What must I do to be saved?

indeed, what? as canadians, we can stumble over the answer to this question simply for fear of telling someone else how to live their life. however, when we, for all our stumbling, realize that our own answer is decidedly more cluttered by religion than Jesus’ answer was, or than Peter’s or Paul’s answers were, it is then that we are able to throw off our cultural baggage and move forward in both our understanding and our sharing of God’s grace.

we run hard in our quest for redemption.

look around: people do amazing things for their community in search of their place in this world. coaching teams, performing in community theatre, organizing hip hop groups in the inner city, serving at camps for the disabled, teaching children bible stories at church- we want to be part of a work that makes the world a better place and establishes a legacy that will somehow live on after we’ve gone. we want to leave a good mark and our quest for purpose, for redemption, drives us.

but sometimes we get things backwards. mistakenly engaging in these community-building activities with the hope of somehow attaining salvation through our involvements. these involvements should be the expression of salvation, not a means of somehow accomplishing it.

but when asked the big redemption question, paul answers with a hyperlink: 'click on BELIEVE and follow the instructions.'

receive hope and then live it out in obedience.

that's the redemption deal.

but remember:

the ‘living it out’ is not where the religion comes in-

it’s where the light shines out

going home?

Tuesday's lectionary reading this week takes us here

²²"And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. ²³I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. ²⁴However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.

(Acts 20.22-24)

you ever get gripped with nostalgia upon returning to your hometown, or the place where you went to university, or a place in which you used to work? it can get pretty trippy, depending on the emotional colour of the memories that continue to reside there in your mind.

returning to jerusalem is a fairly intense homecoming for paul. probably not since arriving in damascas blind has paul felt such trepidation about going somewhere. jerusalem is where paul, once called 'saul of tarsus' in what probably feels like a whole nother life to him, was stationed during the period of his life when he was busy holding the coats of the murderous, stone-throwing mob and 'breathing murderous threats' against the followers of Christ.

so returning to jerusalem represents a closure, of sorts, for paul- the finishing of a marathon; the completion of a task. it is as if all that began on that damascas road is reaching its inevitable conclusion for him personally. it even seems that the guy is a bit worried about being murdered himself- and yet he presses on because, as we read in his writing, the Spirit compels him.

and when the Spirit compels me, am i faithful? i mean, when i KNOW it's God talking, am i ready, willing and able to move?

what if it means 'going back' even though i've 'moved on?'

very few faith opportunities in this western life represent any real threat to my actual life, so why do i find faithfulness itself so challenging?

perhaps i'm still thinking this life is mine.

i read this and thought this2

www.twittermosaic.com

Want to meet God? Look into the face of the next person you meet. (Leonard Sweet)

in spending time with God’s word

i will discover the very face of God,

increasingly visible,

increasingly involved

increasingly engaged...

largely because i am.

(psalm 119.5-9 , john 17.17 )

loaded questions and God's redemption jokes

so Jesus challenges his followers with a loaded question.

'what good will it be for a man to gain the world and forfeit his soul?' (matthew 16.26)

he challenges them to think bigger than

he challenges them to dream bolder than

he challenges them to love deeper than

anything they can possibly pull off on their own steam.

unfortunately, he has to die and resurrect himself before anybody actually gets it. he's not joking... or maybe he is. perhaps it's just that these humble followers have such an earthly perspective that a punchline with a heavenly accent fails to register. humour is so cultural- so subjective.

(some further thoughts on God's sense of humour and how we fail to recognize his best jokes can be found here )

whatever the case, years later, paul choses, instead, to lose his life for Christ’s sake (Matthew 10.39) and in so doing, find the realization of God’s purposes for the time he has left.

having been a both a roman citizen AND a jewish pharisee, ‘breathing murderous threats’ against the followers of Christ; having been actively involved in the persecution that ultimately drove Christianity out of its Neonatal ICU of Jerusalem and into the rest of the world (unwittingly spreading the Gospel far beyond the borders of anything that is manageable for temple authorities to suppress... another one of God's jokes) paul meets God face to face on the killing road and lets it all go.

so when, on his second missionary journey, he receives a vision from God, he acts upon it immediately, (acts 16.9-13) to Macedonia. because of its proximity to the sea as well as to one of the major roads to europe, philippi is a commercial centre of macedonia.

once in philippi, paul leads his group down to the river, for this is where praying takes place in towns that have too few Jewish households to erect a synagogue... makes sense: in many places in scripture, but most pointedly in accounts of israel's exodus and ultimate arrival in the promised land and in writings of the prophet ezekiel, the river is a rich symbol of the Holy Spirit as well as God’s cleansing, anointing and life-giving resource and hope.

paul, arriving in town, seeking to plant a church there, waits until the Sabbath and then seeks out the praying people where he knows they will be. his hans landa-type detective skills also serve him well as a church planter.

and God laughs

(NOTE: the comparisons between the apostle paul and fictional nazi colonel, hans landa are really quite strong: The Jew Hunter)

to gain the whole wide world

but what does it mean to gain the whole wide world?

when Jesus uses this phrase (matthew 16.26), he is talking about trying to figure out the plans of God. he challenges those who are following him around to truly follow- to let go of all that might get in the way of being part of God’s larger plan. he reminds us that, while up to our eyeballs in life on earth, our perspective is limited by it and so we are well advised to be eager listeners and learners, living and loving rather than presuming...

God alone knows all the facts, sets all the goals, and determines morality. Nowhere in Scripture are his principles to be replaced in favour of human calculation. He allows us to play the game; he does not allow us to make the rules. (Erwin W Lutzer)

(for some further thoughts on perspective, its limitations and the problem of objectivity, go here )

the enemy line

canadians are known worldwide as a fairly easy-going, self-effacing people. just watch how canadians are charicatured in films and television shows. we dodge the big deal. we avoid banquets held in our honour. we make funny remarks to counter someone else’s thanks... (for some more canadiana, go here)

our self-consciousness is cultural.

and we’re not alone in that.

look within the story of the early church and you will find glaring examples of cultural attitudes that divide the people Jesus had been dying to unite. (Acts 11.1-18)

peter receives this vision from God where real people are relegated to deplorable eats. it's not that God has reduced people to this. God speaks to peter in pictures that peter recognizes and peter's cultural perspective on non-jewish persons recognizes the symbolism of the gross animals. God intends for that to change. the future of the church is at stake, so God paints peter a dream picture and then interprets it for him. after some initial push back, peter gets it and sets out to do what God is calling him to, even though it is culturally uncomfortable for him.

but there is another perspective here: that of the unsavoury animals.

the non-jewish people ('gentiles') would also recognize the symbolism in peter's vision, for they've been treated as such for millennia. even during the times of exile when the rulers of the land have been non-jewish, there has been a sense of spiritual and cultural arrogance expressed in the behaviours and practices of the jewish people. there has been a line drawn that has created an animosity on either side of the line towards the other. this is why God gives a complementary vision of an angel to cornelius, the non-jewish guy to whose house peter is being sent .

because the attitudes on both sides of a line of segregation

are informed by the line itself.

so does this sound like the line between born-agains and non-believers?

see, as long as the people who don't subscribe to the evangelical christian worldview feel marginalized and looked down upon (with gentile-type labels like nonbeliever, heathen, sinner, joe six-pack, unchurched harry etc) there will still be reticence regarding the overtures of love offered to them. when people don't feel beautiful or loved, it's hard to receive love messages without doubting their sincerity...

***

When the church fails to break the cultural barrier, both sides lose. Those who need the gospel message of hope and the reality of love, don’t get it, and the isolated church keeps evangelizing the same people over and over until its only mission finally is to entertain itself... When the church transcends culture, it can transform culture.
(Charles Colson)

new stuff

And he that sat upon the throne said,

Behold, I make all things new.

(Revelation 21.5)

what does the word 'new' mean when Jesus says it?

i mean, at first glance, Jesus seems to be very much about redefining things in new terms. however, perhaps he isn’t redefining so much as redeeming the original value and intended meaning of things. taking familar passages of scripture from moses and the prophets and delivering them with such spin that the scriptures themselves ae revitalized and the standard for behaviour is raised beyond the parameters of traditional expectation, Jesus’ work on earth is to purposefully exalt this human experience of living... to resurrect it.

and so, within the teaching part of his ministry, he often takes direct questions from the gallery on the simplest of truths, and uses them to radically rework his listeners’ paradigms and deepen their understanding of that which they think they already know...

• matthew 22.35-40 "greatest commandment"
• luke 6.27-31 "golden rule"

note how, in both of these instances, Jesus reminds the people that their own perspective is valuable. “as yourself” and “to you”... it's not enough to debate- to speak in logic and abstracts. he doesn't simply invite his listeners to think right. these words of truth only matter when placed in the context of human experience and lived out there.

there is the real challenge, however.

see, Jesus seems to hold that we already know ourselves implicitly and treat ourselves well... but what if we don’t know these things? failing to love ourselves appropriately, failing to take care of ourselves conscientiously, do Jesus’ words here have any meaning to us at all?