Category: Reflections

In reading through the Daily Office this morning I found myself thinking about generations; indeed, about paradigmatic generations. Let me explain:

In our Old Testament reading we find Moses addressing the People of Israel as they prepare to enter the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 3: 18-29);

In our Psalm we find David praising God for ‘rescuing him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul’ and finally making him King of the Chosen People (Psalm 18- superscription);

In our New Testament reading Paul agonizes over the failure of his own people to receive with faith the Messiah (Romans 9:19-33);

And finally, in our Gospel Jesus forewarns his disciples about the context in which they will live out their lives- the generation marked by his crucifixion and resurrection at its beginning and the destruction of Jerusalem—some 40 years later—at its end (Matthew 24: 1-14).

It occurred to me as I prayerfully read these texts that the Story that the Scriptures tell the Story which begins with Creation and ends with Consummation; the Story which is marked by the disaster of the Fall—the shameful rebellion of the human creature against his glorious and gracious Creator, with the subsequent corrupting of the Creation and the (apparent) impeding of the Creator’s purposes; and the Story that is being brought to its surprising ending through the gracious, glorious and sacrificial activity of the Creator within his Creation and for his Creature- the long, complex, and beautiful story of Redemption.

As I read these texts within THAT Story it occurred to me that there are three paradigmatic generations within it:

The first is that of Moses’ day, the people of the Exodus and the Wilderness wanderings; the people who had been graciously freed from slavery and then, through their wanderings, shaped into a people who could inherit the Promised Land (or at least father a generation who could!).

This is the first and great paradigmatic generation. David in today’s psalm describes his personal experience in terms of the history of this generation! and reminds us that the purpose of salvation is not simply to free us from the slavery of sin but to truly and fully reshape us into Sons and Daughters who can inherit the Kingdom.

The second is that of the New Testament church; those that lived out their lives between the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus and the destruction of Jerusalem. This is the generation who compiled the Gospels and wrote the epistles which continue to shape every subsequent generation of the People of God. This generation assures us that while we can live by and within the victory of our God, we do so within a Creation that is both under judgment and going through the pangs of new birth (read Romans 8 once again).

And what is the Third Great Generation? It is our own!

This is not because we ourselves are the greatest of all subsequent generations, but simply because this is OUR time and OUR world (each generation which preceded us, and each that will succeed us was, or will be, that Third Great Generation).

The task for our generation is to allow our Creator to reshape our lives through our reflection on his revelation to, and interaction with, these paradigmatic generations, so that we may be faithful and fruitful heirs of his Kingdom in our time, as we await his Consummation at the end of time.

The torch has been passed to us.

May we grasp it with joy this day.

‘By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,  he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”  Romans 8:3-4

We are on the holiest of Holy Ground in our Daily Office reading this morning. We have come to the start of the greatest chapter in the greatest of Paul’s epistles – Romans 8.

This has been a fundamental and foundational text for me in my Christian life. I was taught by a godly man to memorize and take to heart the great truth that starts the chapter: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Take note: IF you have responded by faith to the gospel of Jesus Christ and have been incorporated into his body through the sacrament of baptism, you are “IN Christ Jesus”. And IF you are IN Christ Jesus THEN you are no longer UNDER “condemnation”.

This is great news both theologically and practically.

My godly friend taught me the difference between the ‘convicting voice of the Spirit’ and the ‘condemning voice of the enemy’. When we sin the Spirit convicts us (‘You have done wrong!) while the enemy condemns us (‘You ARE wrong!’).  I was graciously taught to recognize that condemning voice and to renounce it. It has literally changed my life.

But today, I was caught by a second and complimentary great truth from this dense and glorious text.  Paul writes: “By sending his own Son in the likeness of human flesh (the Incarnation) and for sin (the Atonement: to deal with the reality of sin), he condemned sin in the flesh….”

Note what Paul is saying: by the sending of God’s Son, as the Messiah of Israel, and through his life and his death, the Creator of all has not only brought ‘sin’ to trial, but has pronounced and executed his judgment on it. He has “condemned sin in the flesh” – first and foremost Jesus’ flesh, but in so doing, for “all human flesh” – you and me included. Again, this is great and glorious good news for us.

We tend to understand ‘sin’ in terms of our ‘wrong actions’, and thus the forgiveness of sins as the “pardoning of those actions.’ But for Paul, “Sin” is the personification of evil; the enslaving and corrupting force within the created order and supremely within the human creature. Go back and read Romans chapter 7 and you will see this writ large.

What all of this means is this: Through Jesus’ life and death, God has not only judged ‘sin’, but has broken its power — its enslaving, corrupting power — over the lives of all those who are IN Christ Jesus. Which means this: while we who are in Christ may still sin, the great truth is we NEED NOT Sin! Sin’s power —  its corrupting and enslaving power over our lives has been broken!

Let that truth sink into your heart this morning.

It too will change your life.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Galatians 5:25

It really is a no-brainer.

Given a choice between living two kinds of life, who in their right mind would choose the one defined by ‘sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealously, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these’ (5:19-21), when offered a life filled with ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control’ (5:22-23).

And yet for the Galatians (and for ourselves?) even if the decision was a no-brainer, in their practice it was a non-reality! They simply were not living the life that was defined and characterized by the ‘fruit of the Spirit.’  That is why the Apostle Paul begins this section of his epistle with the exhortation for them to ‘walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh’ (5:16).

So why is that so? Why is the life we long to live seem so beyond our grasp? Why is the life we long to leave behind seem so ever present?

Those are huge questions. Let me answer them by summarizing the teaching of Dallas Willard (and using his ‘kingdom’ language for Paul’s ‘spirit-language’).

The key to ‘Living-in-the-Kingdom’ (living the life of the Spirit; the life characterized by the ‘fruit of the Spirit’) lies in deepening our ‘Kingdom-Identity’ (who we are) and in developing our ‘Kingdom-awareness’ (where we are, and what resources are available to us).

Kingdom-Identity: Paul describes this reality when he says ‘those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires’ (5:24). This picks up his personal statement from an earlier chapter – ‘I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’ (2:20).  This is what Paul means when he says we ‘live by the Spirit’.  We who have responded to the gospel with faith and been baptized – sacramentally united with Christ- have become one ‘in-whom- Christ-himself-dwells’. THAT is who we are! THAT reality is what truly defines us!

Kingdom-Awareness: As those who are now united to the King, we find ourselves ‘living within his Kingdom’ (his glorious, powerful, and eternal realm) enlivened and empowered and directed by his own limitless, powerful, and glorious Spirit.

As we deepen our grasp on our ‘Kingdom-Identity’ – that we truly are among ‘those-in-whom-Christ-dwells’- and learn how to tap into and develop our ‘Kingdom-Awareness’, we will find ourselves slowly but surely living more fully the ‘Kingdom-life’.

Do we know ‘who we are’? Do we know ‘where we are’? Do we understand that the King has given us everything we need to ‘live in his Kingdom’?

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

‘Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life,
what you will eat or what you will drink,
nor about your body, what you will put on.’
Matthew 6:25

 For those who live paycheck to paycheck — or who would love to HAVE a paycheck!—these remain anxiety-riven economic times. After all it is exceedingly difficult NOT to be anxious about what you will eat (or what you will feed your kids) when you are not sure IF you will have anything to eat, (or to ‘put on’ or the wherewithal to keep a roof over your head).

It is very difficult not to be anxious in those kind of circumstances.

Jesus gets that, he understands that, but he also knows how useless anxiety is!

‘And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?’

It’s a good question- a great question for those of us prone to anxiety. Anxiety may be a natural human response to extreme circumstances, but it is utterly unhelpful and ultimately destructive. It will eventually ‘eat us up’.

So, what is the alternative?

Trust in the goodness and the power and the purpose of the ‘King’ (The Creator and Redeemer of all), and our seeking after his Kingdom (that assured vision of the ‘New Heavens and New Earth’ where God’s will ‘will be done on earth as it is in heaven’).

IF we trust that ‘our heavenly Father knows that we need all these things’ AND – in the midst of the trying circumstances – ‘seek first the kingdom of God’,

THEN the promise is ‘all these things will be added to you.’

I am struck by the correspondence of this teaching with the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer:

It begins with TRUST – ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’

It continues with SEEKING – ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’

It then arrives at PETITION – ‘Give us this day our daily bread….’

The first petition is for provision (We truly NEED these things; they are not incidental nor unimportant).

But the ‘petition’ follows and flows from the ‘trust’ and the ‘seeking’.

It is absolutely vital in times of anxiety that the Christian community not only ‘prays’ the Lord’s prayer, but ‘lives’ it!  That the Christian community refuses to give in to anxiety, and instead, purposefully and intentionally shapes its life according to the pattern of Jesus’ prayer: To trust in the goodness of God, to align ourselves with the purposes of God, and then to petition confidently for the provision of God.‘

‘And we also thank God constantly for this,
that when you received the word of God,
which you heard from us,
you accepted it not as the word of men
but what it really is, the word of God,
which is at work in you believers.’
1 Thessalonians 2:13

I was struck this morning by the simplicity, and the power, and – dare I say the audacity – of the word of God!

Think about what the Scriptures tell us about the ways of God:

‘In the beginning’ God spoke – ‘Let there be…’ and creation itself sprang into being! Eight times in Genesis 1 we read ‘And God said…’ and things happened, indeed ‘things’ came into being!

Then, we are told, ‘in the fullness of time’ (Galatians 4:4) God spoke again – ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ (John 1:14) – and God’s redeeming work came to its climatic and dramatic and salvific end (a ‘work’ that began with the ‘call’ of Abraham and involved the long and complex history of the people of Israel, a ‘history’ that was for the nations!).

Then, Paul tells us, that when men and women speak about this God and what he has spoken into being (creation and redemption), that God himself speaks through their words and ‘calls (them) into his own kingdom and glory’ (1 Thessalonians 2:12).

THAT is what Paul is so thankful for in today’s reading from his first letter to the Thessalonians. When HE proclaimed the gospel – when he told the story of this creating-and-redeeming-speaking-God- THEY not only ‘heard’ a word from him, but ‘heard’ and ‘received’ and ‘accepted’ the ‘word of – and from –‘God’.

But not only is he grateful for that, but he is thankful that, having heard and received and accepted this ‘word of God’, this ‘word’ has taken up residence in them and is now actively continuing God’s ‘re-creating/redeeming’ work (‘the word of God, which is at work in you believers’ 2:13).

That, according to the apostle, is how this God works!

Do you see what I mean by the simplicity, the power and the audacity of God!  He rests his work on the ‘hearing, receiving, and accepting’ of his word.

Have you ‘heard, received, and accepted’ that word of God and from God?

Have you opened yourself to its re-creating, redeeming work this morning?

God speaks. And when his people ‘hear, receive, and accept’, they are caught up in what God is saying!

‘To (the saints) God chose to make known
how great among the Gentiles
are the riches of the glory of this mystery,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.’
Colossians 1:27

There is absolutely no doubt that the Apostle Paul believed with all of his heart that something monumental had taken place in his generation;
that God, who was the Creator of all, the God who had entered into covenant with Israel, had fulfilled his promises to Israel for the creation; and had now made known ‘among the Gentiles’ no less- ‘how great….are the riches of the glory of this mystery’- the ‘mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints’ (1:26).

And what is this ‘mystery’ that had finally come to fruition and unveiled for all to see? ‘This mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory’.

That’s it!

The mystery – what the long complex and multi-layered history of the covenant the Creator established with Israel was all about- had finally come to its surprising conclusion; namely, that the Christ of Israel (the Messiah, the Anointed One) was now resident within Gentile (as well as Jewish) believers!

Let that sink in for a moment: the climax of the Creator’s covenant with Israel on behalf of his creation finds its end in the indwelling of Israel’s Christ within ordinary human beings of all races- ourselves included!

As you attempt to let this sink in, let me remind you of what Paul has already told us about this Christ:

‘He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation’ (1:15);
He is one through whom and for whom ‘all things were created’ (1:16);
He is the one in whom ‘all of the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through (whom) to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross’ (1:19).

THIS is the one who now dwells in us;
THIS is the one who alone is the ground of our ‘hope of glory’.

I invite you this morning to let this truth, this mystery, sink deeply into your psyche. Let it stretch your mind, fill your heart, and overwhelm your imagination. The One in whom ‘the fullness of God was pleased to dwell’, the One through whom the Creator ‘has reconciled all things to himself’, THIS One dwells in you!

And as that truth sinks in, end your meditation where the lectionary ends Paul reflection this morning:

‘Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving’ (2:6-7)

‘Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.’

1 Corinthians 11:28

 

We come at last to the Great Three Days of Holy Week!

We begin with Maundy Thursday and the Celebration of the New Meal (the transformed Passover) which allows us to participate in and benefit from the New Covenant which Jesus established through his New and Greatest of all Sacrifices (Good Friday); a New Covenant which issues in the birth of New Creation (Easter Day), the glorious victory of the Creator over all the forces that threatened his plans for his good Creation- ourselves included!

But how are we to come to these three Great Days?

Paul tells us to come having ‘examined ourselves’ – but what does that mean exactly, and how might we do that well? Are we to hide ourselves in a corner and scrupulously judge our lives, and then if – and only IF- we somehow pass the exam feel good enough to come to the Feast?

Obviously NOT!

I would take the Psalmist who wrote Psalm 102 as our guide (the psalm set for the morning office on Maundy Thursday).

Note the superscription: This is ‘a prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD.’

The psalmist does not ‘examine’ himself by himself, rather he brings his life as he knows it and articulates it into the very presence of God (v. 1-11). And does so with an honesty and boldness that takes our breath away.

He cries out to be heard (sensing that he has not been) and describes his experience of the devastation of his people and of himself (he writes as one who survived the destruction of Jerusalem and the utter desolation of the Temple). He ends with his judgment that all of this is ‘because of your indignation and anger; for you have taken me up and thrown me down!’ (v.10)

 Wow!

But the psalmist does not end there!

He goes on to confession – not of his sins but of God’s greatness and faithfulness to his Covenant!

‘But YOU are enthroned forever…. YOU will arise and have pity of Zion…  the LORD builds up Zion!’ – even now, even through these devastating events!

He even stops his present day confession to ask that it be ‘recorded’- written down ‘for a generation to come’ (v18)- so confident is he of the ultimate triumph of his God.

He then returns to his own time and his own sorrow and his own request (v. 23-24) but these now are incorporated into his confession (v. 25-28). He ends in hope!

So what has the psalmist done?

He has ‘examined’ his life – he has brought his life in all of its rawness into the presence of God through prayer – and has cried out to understand it –to see it – woven into the larger and greater Story that God is writing about and enacting in and for his world!

That, it seems to me, is the way we should ‘come’ to these Great Days.

May God give us the grace and the courage to do so!

By Hank Thompson: Dear friends at Christ the Redeemer,

Last year I was asked to share a personal response to one of the Seven Sayings of Christ from the Cross at a pre-Easter service. I decided to write and read a short piece from the perspective of one of the robbers crucified with Jesus. Afterward I was encouraged to write reflections on all seven Sayings. In the course of working on the project, I was thrilled that the members of my MUSE writing class were open to hearing the Biblical content, with which they were totally unfamiliar, as they freely offered suggestions regarding writing craft. They were excited about the project and gave me a lot of encouragement to finish it.

So here it is. I have not arranged the seven pieces in the traditional order, but in the order that makes for the best reading. Four are from the perspective of those present at the day of crucifixion—Pilate and his wife, Mary mother of Jesus, the robber mentioned above, and a fictional centurion. Three involve personal experiences.

Sincerely,

Hank Thompson

Read Seven Sayings of Christ by Hank Thompson

‘Then the magicians said to Pharaoh,

“This is the finger of God.”

But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and

he would not listen to them,

as the LORD had said.’

Exodus 8:19

 We come to the heart of the human dilemma- and that heart is a heart of darkness!

Moses performs the third of the ten signs that will be needed to break Pharaoh’s will and achieve God’s end – the freeing of his enslaved people. This is the first of the signs that the magicians of Egypt cannot match! Their conclusion: ‘THIS is the finger of God” – that is, a finger of a God who is more powerful than OUR Gods!

‘But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he would not listen to them!’

It is a statement that should freeze us in our tracks.

Now I know that there are huge issues swirling around this ‘hardening’ involving the sovereignty of God and the free will of humankind.  In the story of God’s calling of Moses in chapter 3 the LORD states purposefully ‘but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go!’ (3.21).

Seen from a divine perspective it is apparent that God uses our hardness of heart to achieve HIS good and loving ends; it is also apparent that his good and loving ends are for OUR good! (Note: read verses 22 and 23 of chapter 3 and see that God is determined to reach the tenth plague- the death of the firstborn- that horror which is the mysterious type of the gracious and glorious death of the Son of God).

But seen from a human perspective, Pharaoh’s willful hardness of heart (he ‘WOULD not listen’) should deeply concern us.

Confronted by overwhelming evidence for the presence and activity and desires of God (“Let my people go!’), he nevertheless chooses to resist!

 How can this be?

We are not told the answer to this question in this text, but the lectionary has given us another that offers a suggestion. The gospel set alongside our reading is that of the Rich Young Ruler (Mark 10:17-31).

Here we have the story of a man who is not only attracted TO Jesus (he RUNS to him and KNEELS before him), but who also knows in a deep and visceral way that there is something missing in his life.  However, he leaves Jesus in great sadness, because he could not give up the good that he had (‘sell all that you have and give to the poor’) in order to receive the greater that was promised (‘you will have treasure in heaven’).

He would not give up his ‘god’ – his idol, that which truly ruled his life – in order to embrace and follow his True God!

His heart that had been softened and awakened now was newly hardened.

As we approach Holy Week, by all means cry out to God to ‘soften our hearts’ towards his gospel.

But at the same time implore him to also ‘open your eyes, renew your mind, and strengthen your will’ so that you will see, and know and choose to follow him – come what may.