the stone the builders rejected

Hendrick van den Broeck (1519-1597), "The Resurrection of Christ", Sistine Chapel

Easter Sunday (April 8, 2007)
Psalm 118

"The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes" (vv. 22, 23).

Few were enamored of Jesus during his lifetime: neither the power brokers, nor the religious leaders, nor the populace. The same holds true today. Yet in his love, God has used our very obstinance, ignorance, and animosity to open for us a way to righteousness. Righteousness is not a popular word these days. It ranks far below tolerance, privacy, and prosperity on the applause meter. Yet righteousness is at the top of God's list.

The poor, disenfranchised, and oppressed are the only ones who really get it. They understand the value of righteousness, because they suffer so much the lack thereof.

I had lunch just a couple of days ago with a Bosnian and a Lebanese. I'll bet they have a thirst for righteousness. I'm going to ask them about this the next time we're together. In Jesus there is a way forward for Bosnia, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Sudan, Russia, et. al. There is a way forward for us too! A marvelous (v. 23) thing indeed...

Pentecostal Easter?

Rembrandt, "The risen Christ appearing to the Magdalen"

Easter Sunday (April 8, 2007)
Acts 10:34 - 48

One of the great things about reading the Bible based on a schedule like the Revised Common Lectionary is that one comes across passages that might be other than what one's faith community might typically read on given occasions. This passage has little chance of being read in my evangelical church on Easter Sunday.

For Pentecostals, this might be a wonderful passage. "See, here is clear evidence that when the Holy Spirit comes on someone they will speak in tongues, and that what is really happening is the baptism of the Holy Spirit."

May I suggest that there is something a bit different going on here. The focus of this chapter is clearly on the gospel reaching not only the Jews (like Peter) but the Gentiles as well (like Cornelius). 'Tongues' (v. 46) is now taken in contemporary English to mean "special spiritual languages," but this is a meaning being imposed on the text from without, and is therefore not a good translation. Why does the New International Version (NIV) then use it? I'd like to know the answer to this question myself. I'll try to find out. The alternate translation, which the NIV itself provides, is much better: 'other languages'.

What is happening here in chapter 10 is confirmation of what happened at Pentecost in chapter 2. Pentecost was about the coming of the new covenant for the benefit of every tribe, tongue (ala German, Russian, Italian), and nation. The prophet Joel had predicted that when the new covenant came we would know it in part because the Spirit would be poured out on "all people" (Acts 2:17). The word used here for 'people' is the Greek word SARKOS, which literally means "flesh". One of the uses of SARKOS is to refer to races of people (e.g. Rom. 11:14, "I can make the people of my own race (SARKOS) jealous"). What is Acts 2 about? Races of people receiving the Holy Spirit. Each race was hearing the gospel in their own language (Acts 2:11).

You might raise a question at this point: "Ahem, excuse me, but in Acts 10 those receiving the Spirit are not speaking in their own languages, but in other languages. Precisely. The issue at this point in the story is for the Jews to know that the Spirit really had come on these Gentiles. What better way to demonstrate this than for these Gentiles to speak in languages they didn't know, and which the Jews knew they didn't know, but which the Jews present understood. Forgive me for being so blunt on Easter, but had these Gentiles at this point started saying, "Yabba dabba doo, I want that too," nothing would have been accomplished.

I submit the above humbly as food for thought. There is however a real connection between Easter and Pentecost on which Christians of various persuasions can agree. The resurrection of Christ opened the door for the salvation of every people on earth. As new storm clouds are gathering on top of the existing ones in the Middle East, this is something about which we can truly rejoice. How good to know that amidst strife and conflict, the church remains steadfast, and offers hope to all who enter.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed.

living as Jesus lived

Rodin, "Crucifixion"

Passion Sunday (April 1, 2007)
Philippians 2:5-11

Despite being "in very nature God" (v. 5) Jesus layed down his rights and privileges so that we might have new life. The Apostle Paul's intention here is that we would be compelled to live likewise given our understanding and appreciation for what Christ has done for us.

Consider the needs of others today. Who in your life is most needy at the moment? What is one act you could take today to respond to their need in a way that reflects the gospel of grace and peace? Seize the day, for an adventure of grace awaits you.

the Centurion test

Tintoretto, "Crucifixion"

Passion Sunday (April 1, 2007)
Luke 42 - 43

"The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, "Surely this was a righteous man" (v. 47). Not only did the centurion recognize Jesus as a righteous man, but he praised God. He himself believed! What a joy to know that in an age of cynical deconstruction, the righteousness of Jesus can not only pass muster but also transform the life of someone in a position to see anything inconsistent, unseemly, or mis-reported. Jesus passed the Centurion Test.

Our 21st century praise ought to strengthen this centurion's voice. Yes, there are great conflicts in the world. No, the church is not having the redemptive influence it ought to within many cultures, including here in the U.S. But surely, Jesus was a righteous man, and in his death for us, he secured our righteousness. What reason to hope, to rejoice, and to live for our Father's glory.

navigating depression

Van Gogh, "Orchid in Bloom with Poplars in the Forefront"

Liturgy of the Passion (Sunday, April 1, 2007)
Psalm 31:9-16

"Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief. My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak" (Psalm 34:9,10).

Well, David, good morning to you! Boy does that guy sound depressed... If anyone should have been able to avoid depression, wouldn't it be David, the "man after God's own heart"? Well, maybe this was around the time of his moral failure with Bathsheba. Aha... that explains it.

Possible, but not likely. More likely is that David experienced the full range of emotion throughout his life as have many great men of God. Sometimes this range will wander into the territory of depressive thoughts and even seasons. How does a man, no, scratch that, "man or woman", no, scratch that, "person"... (Do we seem just a little preoccupied with gender?)

How does a man or woman of God cope with, manage, and respond to such seasons? By:

• taking refuge in the Heavenly Father's ability to deliver him (or her) (v. 1)
• trusting in this deliverance (v. 14)
• letting the Lord direct one's priorities (v. 15)
• keeping one's eyes on the Lord's unfailing love (v. 16)

I'll throw in a bonus tip. If all else fails, go to the gym, get on the treadmill with some good music on your IPod, and let your mind unwind. With God watching over you, it's going to be okay.

preach the word

The Archangel Gabriel

Passion Sunday (April 1)
Isaiah 50

When I asked a mentor of mine, "What does the church need most?", his response was immediate: "preach the Word." How quickly we forget that this simple but profoundly powerful exercise is what the church needs most.

This passage gives great encouragement and counsel to those who would dare to proclaim the truth of the gospel. Those who preach "have a word that sustains the weary" (v. 1). They will be people who listen carefully to what the Spirit is saying to their own souls (v. 2). They will consecrate themselves to their calling (v. 3). They will be willing to suffer criticism, insults, and even mockery (v. 6). They are invulnerable to shame because they have internalized the sovereignty of God (v. 7). They are confident, not in themselves, but in their Heavenly Father's ability to vindicate them, despite their own fallenness (v. 8). They have staying power that outlasts their opponents (v. 9).

It is so simple and yet so powerful. Preach the Word!

Mary's extraordinary act

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, "Christ at Supper with Simon the Pharisee":
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=144492&handle=li

What would move Mary to take a large bottle of perfume worth what today would be at least $30,000, pour it out onto Jesus feet, and then wipe it with her hair? Judas's reaction only seems unreasonable to us because he is Judas: "Why wasn't this given to the poor?" Jesus responds by saying something curious: "It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial."

The context is important here. Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem, and probably knows that in so doing he is setting in motion his own crucifixion. Set in these terms, what is $30,000 in comparison to the value of the forgiveness of the sins of the whole world? Mary's gift was to appreciate who Jesus was and what he was about: forgiveness and redemption.

That our personal sins have been forgiven, and that our lives are in the process of being redeemed, is great cause for celebration today. Don't let the needs of the moment, even if they be the poor among us, obscure the centrality of living in and living out the forgiveness and redemption of Christ.

the absence of presumption

Peter Bruegel the Elder, "Procession to Calvary"

fifth Sunday in Lent (Sunday 3/25)
Philippians 3:4-14

We evangelicals, especially those of us of the megachurch ilk, can be smug. We gather faithfully on Sundays confident in both our standing before God and our value to our communities. We are in danger of presuming that God's favor will remain upon us (or even is upon us!).

Not so the Apostle Paul. Read this passage and one thing that may strike you is a complete absence of presumption concerning his own standing before God. He says:

• "and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead" (v. 11)
• "Not that I have already obtained this" (v. 12)
• "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it" (v. 13)

How can this be? Didn't Paul get the memo on the difference between justification and sanctification? Or is the real problem that we have boxed up our theology a little too simply and a little too neatly?

Paul himself might say this to us: "You understand that righteousness comes only through faith in Christ and by faith in Christ. This is good. Yet understand now that any true righteousness that has come will continually be working itself out in your life in a progressively clearer understanding of your own calling, both individually and collectively."

As Paul did, let us strain ahead, pressing on toward the goal of the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus. Do you have a sense of what your personal calling is? If not, ask a friend to help you discern it. If so, what would you most like to do to pursue your calling this week?

returning from exile

Sam Francis, "The Overyellow"

fifth Sunday in Lent
Psalm 126

Ecstatic joy: "When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy." Imagine what it must have been like for the Jews to have inhabited a beautiful country, to be exiled, but then after 70 years, to return. Subsequently this joy waned: "Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev." The hope of the Psalmist is that if a reversal of fortune happened once, it could happen again: "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy."

As an American, I can't help but think about my own country in this context. We had the joy of being a people who could start anew. Yet now, 230 years later, despite profound blessings from God, we seem fractured within, and despised without. Oh that our country would find its way back into God's favor, so that as a nation, we could laugh again.

I don't know the fate of my country. I'll do my best to point the direction to joy from a patriotic standpoint. Yet for the true people of God, reversal of fortune is inevitable, because it has already occurred at the cross. We are not yet in paradise, but we are already home in the kingdom of our Heavenly Father. May the souls of God's people sing for joy today.

divine exasperation

"God the Father", Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel

Fifth Sunday in Lent (March 25, 2007)
Isaiah 43:14-28

The lectionary reading actually stops at verse 21. This is understandable, as "that they may proclaim my praise" is a much happier ending than verse 28: "So I will disgrace the dignataries of your temple, and I will consign Jacob to destruction, and Israel to scorn."

What is actually going on here? I still find it difficult to drop right into the middle of Isaiah and figure him out. With long books like this a good commentary can really help. One of my favorite one-volume commentaries on the whole bible is _The New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition_ by IVP. The notes there confirmed my suspicion: v. 28 is a key verse for Isaiah chapter 43. The Hebrew word used for "destruction" in v. 28 is HEREM, which is the strongest possible term that could be used. HEREM was something you did to Jericho or the Amalekites. Would God really want to HEREM his own people?!

The strange thing is that in the very next verse, 44:1, God is singing a very different tune: "But now listen Jacob, ... Israel whom I have chosen." Let's review our interpretive options:
1) Chapter 44 wasn't written by the same guy who wrote chapter 43
2) God is schizophrenic
3) God is exasperated

My vote is for option "3". God delivered his people out of Egypt, and into the promised land, giving them chance upon chance to get right with him. How did Israel respond? By burdening God with their sins and wearying him with their offenses. What an obtuse group of people those Israelites were!

Yet are we any different? Have we thanked God today for forgiving our sins and providing for us abundantly? Or are we too caught up in ourselves even to give any of this a thought? The good news is that even when our behavior leads God himself to the point of exasparation, his commitment to love us and save us overrides even his own desire to destroy us and be done with it. Not even divine exasperation can separate God's people from the love of Christ.

get in the game

Rembrandt, "Return of the Prodigal Son"

fourth Sunday in Lent
11 Cor. 5:11 - 6:2

There has been much written in recent years about the importance of churches being sensitive to the needs of seekers. There is some merit in this: why repel people through obtuse religiosity? At the same time, consumer-driven Christianity is not the game in which classical Christians are to be. The game for us is to persuade men and women of the truth of the gospel and their need for Christ. What I long for is not so much seeker-sensitive churches as gospel-sensitive ones!

A gospel-sensitive church is one in which:

• the fear of the Lord is all-pervasive (v. 11a)
• a spirit-directed sense of conscience serves as a rudder for the journey (v. 11b)
• leaders set the bar high in terms of their personal and ministry conduct (v. 12)
• the love of Christ is compels sacrificial action (vv. 14,15)
• worldly thinking is distinguished from Christian thinking (v. 16)
• broken people are regarded from the standpoint of their new natures breaking forth (v. 17)
• there is a commitment to reconciliation wherever it may be needed (vv. 18,19)
• there is clarity about each believer's identity and role as an ambassador for Christ (v. 20)
• there is an appreciation for the local church as the embodiment of God's righteousness on earth, just as Jesus was (v. 21)
• there is a mutual commitment to ministry based on grace (6:1)
• there is a sense of urgency in pursuing the call (6:2)

How would you like to be part of such a church? You already are if you will only choose today to internalize and model these commitments before your brothers and sisters. Get in the game.

tragically lost, unexpectedly redeemed

Gauguin, "Swineherd"

fourth Sunday in Lent
Luke 15:1-32

I attended a funeral this past weekend for my Uncle Lee Van Wormer near Columbia, South Carolina. Lee’s life story reminds me a lot of the stoy of the prodigal son in Luke 15. In both cases, something tragically lost is unexpectedly redeemed.

Lee’s life was troubled from early on. When he was only ten years old, his parents, in desperation, sent him to a military academy. As his parents left him, Lee would be standing at the gate of the academy crying in the pain of abandonment. Into adulthood Lee was the black sheep of the family. Then in his 50’s, after two failed marriages, he fell out of the extended family’s orbit. When he re-emerged, he was married again, but the family slowly discovered he had become a different man: one who profoundly loved and protected his wife and her kids, and one who maintained a significant circle of friends.

While Lee was on his deathbed, one of these friends named John came for a visit. John asked, “Lee, have you accepted Christ’s offer of forgiveness for your sins?” Lee suddenly sat up, very alert, and said, “How do we do it?” Lee became a Christian shortly before he died.

The funeral was painful for me. It’s hard to watch your cousins grappling with the loss of their dad having just lost one’s own months earlier. I was searching for words as I looked into the eyes of my dear cousin Lee Anne. She looked back at me and said, “It’s hard to lose a Dad, isn’t it?” We gave one another a long tearful hug.

What a joy though to know that both of our dads are in paradise. It's a place where for my dad every car is a Mercedes, and for Lee Anne's dad the skies are always sunny in their readiness to receive his plane. As believers, our lives are not perfect, but we’ve already been found and redeemed. We now have the joy of living in the kingdom of God while we extend this kingdom into a lost and broken world.

the blessing of forgiveness

Aivazovsky, "The Ninth Wave"

Fourth Sunday in Lent
Psalm 32

"Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven." Think about it: this is true.

Our contemporary world is vexed with tremendous confusion over what constitutes ultimate reality. If the secular humanists are right we are products of an evolution of continuous improvement capable of creating and fulfilling our own purpose. If the radical Muslims are right we are infidels in need of submission. If however the Christians are right we are beings both "majestically created and fatally flawed" (as Francis Schaeffer often said).

The path to salvation is not the self-fulfillment of secular humanism, nor the submission of radical Islam, but something at once much simpler and far more profound: forgiveness. Blessed indeed is he whose transgressions are forgiven.

Is this a blessing you have already claimed? Then rest in it, rejoice, and walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received. If not, this offer is so near to you that all you need do is call out, saying, "Lord, forgive me." Your heavenly Father would like nothing better than to honor your request.

rolling back reproach

Masaccio, "The Expulsion from Eden"

Fourth Sunday in Lent
Joshua 5:9-12

I don't recall ever hearing a sermon entitled, "The Hill of Foreskins," but this in fact the meaning of Gibeath Haaraloth, the place where Joshua circumcised the second generation of Israel. The image is a powerful one: just as circumcision involves the removal of a very significant portion of the male anatomy, so forgiveness involves a rolling back of a very significant part of the human condition - sin.

So serious was Israel's grumbling and rebellion against God in the desert that not one male of the generation to have left Egypt was allowed to continue forward. Only now, with that first generation gone, could the second generation be re-consecrated, and begin to move once again toward the promised land.

Yet despite the serious consequences of sin, there is hope in this account. God does not want his people to perish in the desert. He is ready to roll back our reproach if we will only reconsecrate ourselves to him.

The good news for us is that on this side of the cross, we don't have to wait for our children to continue the journey in the face of our own failure. Take a quiet moment for personal inventory. What sin of reproach do you need rolled back? Give your body, mind, and soul wholly to God's purpose today, because the promised land awaits you, even today.