Furious Longings and Skeptical Souls (1)

Song of Solomon 2:10-13
“Arise, my darling;
My beautiful one, come away with me!
Look! The winter has passed,
the winter rains are over and gone.
The pomegranates have appeared in the land,
the time for pruning and singing has come;
the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
The fig tree has budded,
the vines have blossomed and give off their fragrance.
Arise, come away my darling;
my beautiful one, come away with me!”

I can wrap my head far more easily around the idea that God loves me than I can imagine Him crooning these words over me.

springtime is lovetime and viva sweet love

My faith has been twisting and turning in the violent wake of a paradigm shift, and my mentor recommends that I reawaken my sense of Jesus as a person. Prayerfully. Meditatively. Reach out my ears and listen.

It is Jesus the person who saves.
Not Jesus the collection of verses.
Not Jesus the idea.
Not Jesus the Icon.

It is Jesus of Nazareth, the one Paul describes in the first verses of his letter to the Christians in Rome, the one John meets on Patmos in the Revelation – the Was One, the Being One, the Coming One – that fascinates me. I want to know Him. I want to be known by Him.

There’s a rumor going around that he has a furious longing for me, too – but I don’t really know about that.

nick

Why Was Jesus Baptized?

I came across this question today, along with the pat answer (given in the COMMENTS section – not in the body of the blog, which answers a different question from today’s topic here) that Christians tend to give, as if it solves the whole problem. I did a bit of writing there to answer it, as much of a challenge to myself to focus my thinking about it as an attempt to answer the question itself. But time is limited, and since I’m in the midst of trying to get back to writing, I thought I’d share my response here and look for answers. First, though: the passage!

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’”

Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins… Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matt 3:1-6; 13-17 ESV)

So… why was Jesus baptized? Yesyes – he was baptized “to fulfill all righteousness.” I know what it says – I just typed it! But why – or maybe better… how – does the immersion of Jesus “fulfill all righteousness?”

If you know your Bible very well at all, you know that there is a TON of meaning packed into those four little words – meaning that was clear to the 1st Century Jewish worldview, but is nowhere near as clear to us today. Just reciting those words at someone who is asking, “Why was Jesus baptized?” is hardly going to get the job done.

We tend to read Jesus’ words as a recitation of a parental evasion – you know, a “Because Dad said so” kind of thing. Perhaps that is an accurate interpretation, but it is hardly the only option.

Another way we read those words is to make “righteousness” synonymous with “goodness.” That way, we read this verse as Jesus saying, “Go ahead and do this, because it is another thing on a long list of good things that I need to do.” There’s some merit to that interpretation as well, but by itself, it falls short.

A far more fulfilling option to me is presented by Tom Wright. He proposes, across a VAST library of writings with a ridiculous amount of supporting evidence, that words like “righteousness” and its verb form “justify” refer to God’s entire salvation plan. He translates Matthew 3:17 as, “This is how it’s got to be right now. This is the right way for us to complete God’s whole saving plan.” This meaning has the benefit of encompassing all the implications of the above two ideas, while going further by connecting it to God’s purposes in a way we can actually wrap our heads around. It is something “Dad” said to do, and it is a good thing – but this interpretation explains WHY.

Let’s think about ritual for a little while – but try to eliminate the negative connotations and cling to the positive. Ritual is more than just something we do over and over because we have to – that’s OCD, not worship. Ritual connects you to a larger community – a community spread across time and space! Think about the Passover ritual (as well as many of the other high feast day rituals in Israel) – in re-enacting the Exodus by wearing traveling clothes, eating traveling food, and re-telling the ancient story, worshippers years and years later became the Exodus people again. Paul makes this pretty explicit in his “participation” theology in 1 Corinthians 10.

So what, you say? What does this have to do with John’s baptism?

Well, WHY did John preach and practice a baptism of repentance into the remission of sins (Mark 1:4) *on the far side of the Jordan*? Why there, when (if the location doesn’t matter) he could just as easily have done it in the Temple mikvehs, in the Mediterranean, or anywhere else where running water could consistently be found?

Israel stopped wandering and became a nation when they crossed through the Jordan River into Canaan, leaving Egypt and idolatry and fear of the Canaanites on the other side. Okay – so they didn’t do so well at that once they were ON the other side, but just as eaters of the Passover participated in the Exodus again, those who came across to the far side of the Jordan to submit to John’s baptism were, in effect, confessing Isaiah’s confession (“woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips”) and participating in the renewal – not just or even primarily of themselves – but of GOD’S PEOPLE, the vehicle by which God’s salvation was *always* intended to be conveyed to the whole world.

John calls the people to the far side of the Jordan to say, “God wants us to start over from the beginning, to pledge our loyalty to Him again (a la Joshua 1), to renew our potential to convey the blessing of Abraham to all the world.”

When you think about it that way… OF COURSE Jesus needed to be baptized. If ALL ISRAEL needed to be baptized into the forgiveness of sins and the righteousness of God, then OF COURSE Jesus, the representative Israelite needed to be baptized. John, overwhelmed by both the goodness of his cousin and the shocking idea that the Messiah would take onto himself the sins of the people, misunderstands the kingdom agenda and – like Peter will do in Matthew 16 – tries to prevent Jesus from fulfilling his calling.

Jesus says, “No – it must be like this – I must take on the sins of the nation – your immersion is about confessing that Israel is broken and in desperate need of God’s salvation. I *am* Israel, so I must do this in order for Israel – and thus the world – to be saved.” *THAT* is what it means to fulfill all righteousness – to do everything it takes to bring every aspect of God’s saving plan into reality.

All that in four little words. Thank you, Lord.

in HIS love,

nick

Yesterday’s Communion Meditation

Before yesterday, it had been months and months since the last time I was blessed with the opportunity to offer a communion meditation for our congregation at HH. I think it may have ended up being more meaningful for me than for anyone else – for which I apologize – but it has been on my mind ever since, so here it is. Feel free to share your thoughts!

Why Do We Eat and Drink?

We eat and drink in the presence of our Father, to remember how He sacrificed His son to save us, and the world.

We gather around the table to eat and drink with brothers and sisters – not just in this room, but around the community, around the state, around the world – eating and drinking to remember the One whose love unites us into one body.

We eat and drink to remember that night long ago, when the disciples gathered around the table in the upper room, fearful and confused, and ate and drank with their friend who also happened to be God’s Anointed One.

And we eat and drink to remember into the future, when all God’s children will gather and share in the great Wedding Feast of the Lamb, and enjoy His presence forever and forever.

But why do we eat and drink? When God considered how we would come together to establish, remember, and incarnate all these things from Pentecost to today, why did He choose eating and drinking as the activity that would best carry forth his purposes?

The Apostle Paul writes:

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all… he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

We eat and drink because our life together is one of continual maturation. What happens to someone who stops eating and drinking? They wither away and die. We eat and drink in order to grow up, to grow up into the One whose flesh and blood we remember.

in HIS love,
nick

Uh-oh… Two Days In A Row!

Yeah, but this one isn’t that serious. I just wanted to mention something I see a lot of lately that is kind of annoying. Fake statistics based on ridiculous polls. I could make up a poll like this, for example:

What would you rather eat?

• hot gravel
• a handful of live fire ants
• brussels sprouts

With such a poll, I bet I could “prove” that the vast majority of people LOVE brussels sprouts! When the other options are so skewed, you’ve created a poll specifically to return the result you’re looking for.

There’s another interesting, more devious arrangement that I saw today on (*blush* Guilty Pleasure alert!) my People’s Choice Polls daily email. The question of the day was, “What’s your favorite Meryl Streep movie?”

The clear winner, according to their poll, was Mamma Mia – which, if you know anything about movies, musicals, or Meryl Streep, you quickly realized that this performance was coaxed out of her by holding her dear and beloved friend Robert Redford at gunpoint until principal photography wrapped.

You know *why* Mamma Mia is winning?

Because the other choices are:

• Julie & Julia
• Out of Africa
• Sophie’s Choice

THIS poll was crafted specifically to split the vote of the actual Meryl Streep fanbase, maybe to allow the Amanda Seyfried fanbase to win, to boost hits from their core demographic… who knows?

All I’m saying is that polls like these are why the old phrase remains true: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” So, take a moment today to look at what you read!

Oh yeah, and since I mentioned it:

More, on Speaking for the Living

Isaiah 43:10 NET
You are my witnesses,” says the Lord,
“my servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may consider and believe in me,
and understand that I am he.
No god was formed before me,
and none will outlive me.

Acts 1:8 NET But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth.”

One of the important facets (for me, anyway) about being a Speaker is the difference between being an attorney, a judge, and a witness. Think about it – who has the scariest job in the courtroom? Isn’t it the judge, in whose hands someone’s life or death might rest? Thank God that He, not I, is the Judge of all the living. Me being in charge of judging would not go well for some people!

Who works the hardest in the courtroom? The attorneys! They have to spend all this time building a case, arranging facts and stories and exhibits in just the right order to offer the most persuasive and powerful argument. Thank God that His Spirit, not I, is our Paraclete – the one who comes alongside us in troubled times to offer words on our behalf. That is too much work for me.

These passages offer the opportunity to be relieved of a great deal of stress, if only we would accept our role in the Mission of God. We are not attorneys, charged with convincing the crowd of the truth of our case. Nor are we the judge, responsible for the fate of those in front of us (William Young’s moving scene in The Shack about how badly we want to be the judge is transformative reading).

We are witnesses.

We are witnesses of the Christ. We tell, in word and deed, the story of Jesus – both what He did in His 1st century time and what He continues to do in our lives today. That’s our privilege – that’s our responsibility – that’s our calling. Judging, convincing, convicting – that’s above our pay grade.

We Speak – for the Living.

New Year, New Blog

Happy New Year to my old Fumbling family!

Welcome to 2012! What a crazy number… I can remember back in the 80s, imagining what life would be like this year. I’m still cranky about the absence of decent and affordable flying cars, but since I am using something like Ender’s desk to.write this blot, how cranky can I really be?

Speaking of Ender, I probably ought to mention something about the name of my new home on the Internet. “Speaker for the Living” comes from the title of the second book of Orson Scott Card’s Ender Saga, Speaker For The Dead. After the events of Ender’s Game, Ender writes a pair of books under the pseudonym “Speaker For The Dead” to explain the lives of the two great personages of his lifetime. Out of those books, a spiritual movement rises. Citizens begin to call for a Speaker to mark the death of a family member. Speakers research the life and personality of the dead person, in order to Speak for them: to describe their life as they tried to live it… not to persuade or apologize or plead for forgiveness, but instead to offer an opportunity to understand the whole person, including flaws and misdeeds and motivation.

I love that idea, of giving someone a clear and honest hearing. Don’t cover up, don’t make stuff up, but let people know why I did what I did. My one tweak to Card’s idea? Don’t wait until people are dead to do it. Speak for them now.

That’s what I want to do now… my old blog, Fumbling Towards Eternity, was a little more me-focused, maybe? And this one will be, too – I mean, mine is the only perspective I have. But I want this new effort to sort of tell stories… to open up the lives and stories of the Scriptures and explore them, to learn what they have to share… to grasp why they said and did whatever they did so we can learn together about what they have to offer us for the Improvisational Christian life.

I hope you’ll come on this adventure with me and share some of your own stories along the way. The road is out there, let’s walk together!

In HIS love,
nick

“We were supposed to fight for Willie”

The court-martial is adjourned.

“What does that mean?”

The sentence has been delivered.

“What did we do wrong?”

But the accused just doesn’t understand. He looks around, lost and terrified.

“We did nothing wrong!”

According to the tradition he had received, he was exactly right. They hadn’t done anything wrong. Their fellow Marine wasn’t measuring up, and they made sure he understood that there were consequences for failure to perform. That’s what you do.

That’s what we did at West Point. We didn’t call it a “Code Red,” but fear was a prime motivator for achievement during my plebe year. Maybe you’d get a Mack Truck if you were late to formation or double-dropped a firstie’s room. Or a GI Shower for failures of hygiene. The Blanket Party was a popular choice for blowing off PT, failing a Fitness Test.

In a world where performance is what matters, there’s no meaningful difference between laziness, sickness, and misunderstanding. There’s only poor performance, and poor performance reflects… poorly… on your unit. How do you deal with poor performance?

A good leader investigates the situation and, if a problem truly exists, finds a course of action that will effectively train and equip their fellow servant to perform their mission.

Most people (for let’s be fair – good leaders are few and far between) will attack, insult, launch accusations of disloyalty to the team, to the leader, to the family, to the brand. A poor leader will do everything to tear their fellow servant apart, in the hopes that the displeasing behavior will be torn away before their usefulness as a servant is destroyed.

It happens in the church, too. If someone doesn’t measure up according to the three key metrics of modern church life (Attendance, Abstinence, or Altruism), what’s the typical response? Is it compassionate relationship, where we get to know what’s really going on? Do we examine ourselves, to see if the standards we demand actually fit the mission we claim to serve? Or do we fire off dirty looks, harsh letters, vindictive gossip, and overt ostracism – and if it drives them away from the church, well, that’s tough love!

Is it the only thing we know? Nope. Maybe it is in other contexts, but not in the church. Good leadership, while uncommon, is not extinct. That’s just no excuse. At some level, good leadership has been modeled for them – if nowhere else, in the life of Jesus Christ.

So what happens to create such cruel and spiritually devastating situations?

Enough people survive poor leadership that the short-term gains of the easy way are believed to outweigh the long-term strength of the best way. What the poor leader hasn’t internalized, hasn’t even considered, is the mission – the purpose for their very existence – and how that mission must inform every aspect of what they do – including training and interaction with fellow servants. He’ll scream and wail, “We did nothing wrong!” until their battle buddy lays the awful truth (that he himself has only just realized) before them…

“Yeah, we did. We were supposed to fight for the people who couldn’t fight for themselves. We were supposed to fight for Willie.”

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! (Gal 5:14-15, NET)

in HIS love,
nick

PS – Thank you, Aaron Sorkin, for your endlessly challenging script-writing.

A New Start, or A Sign of Growth?

A little over six years ago, I wrote the following as the start to my on-again off-again love affair with blogging:

Fumbling Towards Eternity

31 years old, and what do I know?

I know Jesus of Nazareth is the most brilliant human being who ever lived.

I know I’ve tried lots of different ways to get around that fact.

I know I love Him.

I know I want to spend the rest of my life telling people about Him.

I know how little I know. I know how much time I’ve wasted.

Fumbling towards Eternity,

Nick

I don’t know where this will end up, but this is what I think:

After six years, a little less fumbling and a little more speaking might be in order. Any real growth I experience will only occur in conversation with the One True God and the people He loves.

That includes ALL of you, by the way. Point being, I can’t hide in a corner and do this all by myself.

We need each other, you and I.

I hope I may bless you along the way.

in HIS love,
nick

Satisfying Our Craving for Universal Justice

In the wake of the Rob Bell controversy over universalism, I’ve been trying to fumble my way off of the horns of the Eternal Conscious Torment vs. Christian Universalism dilemma. I borrowed Edward Fudge’s fine work, The Fire That Consumes, a Biblical and Historical examination of the doctrine of final punishment. I’ve heard that Brother Fudge is releasing an updated version soon, with more notes and information. I don’t have a lot to say about it at present – I won’t be posting a review or anything like that. But the book definitely has several things going for it – Exhaustive research, readability, honest wrestling with the text of Holy Scripture, and avoidance of the horns of the dilemma mentioned above.

To be honest, here’s what I wrestle with. The universalists tend to devalue free will and seriously underestimate the poisonous power of sin. The ECT people seem unwilling to really stare that doctrine in the face and let the full horror of such a condemnation wash over them. If it is true, it is true, regardless of how horrifying it is – but if you believe it is true, how can you spend another cent on entertainment while there are people on earth in jeopardy of such a fate, simply because no one got around to telling them about Jesus?

There are a few New Testament Scriptures, though, that have been bouncing off of each other in my head today. I don’t expect this blog to be very coherent, nor is it trying to be persuasive about anything, except perhaps the seriousness with which we should take eternal things.

NT Wright recently brought Matthew 2:1-12 to mind for me.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, in the time of King Herod, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem saying, “Where is the one who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him. After assembling all the chief priests and experts in the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.

“In Bethlehem of Judea,” they said, “for it is written this way by the prophet:

6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are in no way least among the rulers of Judah,
for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod privately summoned the wise men and determined from them when the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and look carefully for the child. When you find him, inform me so that I can go and worship him as well.” After listening to the king they left, and once againt the star they saw when it rose led them until it stopped above the place where the child was. When they saw the star they shouted joyfully. As they came into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother, they bowed down and worshiped him. They opened their treasure boxes and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

After being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back by another route to their own country.

Three things stand out to me:

• The magi came, not because a preacher told them about Jesus, but because his star rose in the sky. This doesn’t mean that it climbed up the sky the way the sun appears to, but rather an astrological rising – a coming into prominence in its relationship to other cosmological bodies.
• The star – and thus their own spiritual system of understanding reality – wasn’t enough. It only got them to Jerusalem, where the scholars in the Hebrew Scriptures had to be consulted before the wise men could go on the next step of their journey.
• The wise men were the only ones in the story (so far) interested in actually following the God-given signs to Bethlehem. The scholars in the law seem too convinced of their own brilliance to think that three pagans could spot the work of God before they could, and Herod isn’t interested at all until his self-preservation instinct kicks in and he sends out the death squad.

But God was working to spread the gospel of the world’s savior, in ways apart from the wisdom of His dedicated believers. This should in no way inspire apathy, but rather awe and thanksgiving and an increased desire to get in on what God is already doing.

That passage made me think of this one:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, “The righteous by faith will live.” For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless heartst were darkened. -Romans 1:16-21 NET (emphasis mine)

The magi spotted that God was up to something because they were looking. When they obeyed what God revealed to them, through nature and Scripture, they found the Christ and worshiped Him. Then, because they would have been in grave danger from God’s people, he helped them escape via a different route. GOD IS STILL WORKING TODAY. Look around, and you might spot it!

And those passages together pointed the way to this one.

And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your minds as expressed through your evil deeds, but now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him – if indeed you remain in the faith, established and firm, without shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has also been preached in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship from God – given to me for you – in order to complete the word of God, that is, the mystery that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints. God wanted to make known to them the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him by instructingt and teaching all people with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature in Christ. Toward this goal I also labor, struggling according to his power that powerfully works in me. – Colossians 1:21-29 NET (emphasis mine)

The traditional interpretation I’ve always heard of the passage above is that either Paul means the whole Roman world, not the whole wide world, when he says “all creation,” or that somehow, in some way that history completely missed and archaeology still fails to uncover, God sent missionaries to every single person on earth at that time to preach the gospel. I’ve had trouble with both of those interpretations, because the phrase “all creation” encompasses more than just the Roman world, and more than just humanity on the third rock from the sun. It can mean every single thing that has been created, and Paul isn’t given to great flights of rhetorical expansiveness – his language is typically pretty precise.

So… where does that leave me right now?

• The magi heard the gospel preached to all creation under heaven.
• Science led them to Scripture.
• Scripture led them to worship.

If that line of thinking leads someone to rest on their laurels because God’s still working (so they don’t need to), then their heart hasn’t been grasped by the power of God unto salvation.

If that line of thinking leads someone to trust more fully in the universal justice of the One True God, because Scripture testifies that the church is not the only way God reaches out with the message of Jesus (but Holy Scripture is still integral to God’s work of salvation), then God be praised for the riches of His glorious grace!

in HIS love,
nick

Tyndale Book Club Hub Newsletter Giveaway!

In honor of Tyndale launching its new book club e-newsletter they’re running a 30 day giveaway on their website. The Book Club Hub Newsletter will be an email newsletter geared towards people who are in or are running book clubs. It will feature suggestions, discussion guides and great ideas for your book clubs. You can see a preview by clicking here.

To enter the giveaway you just need to visit the contest page and click on the book you’d like to sign up to win. You can even go back and sign up for both books. Each day is a new giveaway so you can return to the site each day and try to win. Every few days the books change, so check back!

Disclaimer: Bloggers who post about this giveaway will be entered to win The Holy Bible NLT: Mosaic (a version I’ve been craving ever since Tim Archer mentioned it!)

in HIS love,

nick