A New Year Blessing

As we enter a New Year, may you find joy in the simplicity and profundity of a faith focused on Jesus Christ alone.

May Jesus, as witnessed to faithfully in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, become bigger for you this year. May deficient pictures of God, formed in your mind because of sin in your life, be shattered again; so that you might see afresh God revealed to you in and through Jesus Christ.

May all your understanding and experience of God be remade by the God of Israel, who loves you as a Father loves His Son. May He work in you by His Holy Spirit to draw you to and reshape you in His image and likeness in Jesus Christ. And may the pain of that reshaping be surpassed by the joy of a life freshly emptied, humbled and made compliant to the will of God, that you might find delight in the purpose for which God created you in Christ Jesus.

Have a blessed New Year.

Drawn to Discipleship

In looking back over these studies on the Philippian Hymn, it occurs to me that the biggest contemporary challenge to the Christian Church is the diminution and devaluing of the cost of discipleship.

Truth is, you can have a religion that speaks of the value of the individual, the importance of love and acceptance and tolerance, without having either God or Christ. Karl Marx had a good try. Ron Hubbard arguably managed it even better, in a smart move from writing science fiction into designing Scientology. Religions that appeal to human instinct are always going to be popular.

But there is nothing popular at the heart of the Christian gospel, where faith is never but a ‘decision’ to believe or an experience of existential reality. The faith that marks discipleship must be prefaced by real repentance and the cry of the Jewish shema, affirming allegiance to the God of Israel, who declares His Word of instruction and command, drawing His people into reflecting His character and participating in His actions.

As we look to celebrate and embrace the Christ of Christmas let us remember this cost to God, in terms of self-renunciation and pain, of embracing us through the Incarnation. And let us not imagine that His way can be anything but costly for those who would find and follow it.

Perspective on life

Bad deal, born with a hint of illegitimacy and dumped in straw?

'We don't get to make our lives up. We get to receive our lives as gifts. The story that says we should have no story except the story we chose when we had no story is a lie. To be human is to learn that we don't get to make up our lives because we're creatures. Christians are people who recognise that we have a Father whom we can thank for our existence. Christian discipleship is about learning to live our lives as gifts without regret.'

Stanley Hauerwas & Jean Vanier, Living Gently in a Violent World: The Prophetic Witness of Weakness, IVP, Downers Grove, 2008, pp. 92-93.

Fragile yet fixed

“We commonly assume that the opposite of trusting God is doubting God. In the Old Testament, the opposite of trusting God is trusting something else, such as another god, or political resources, and thus trusting ourselves (Doubting God doesn’t matter so much as long as you are doubting the right God.).”

John Goldingay, Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone, Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, pp. 49-50.

The Christ Hymn - pt. 10

That Jesus Christ is ‘LORD’, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2.11)

To ascribe to Jesus the title, ‘LORD’, is to assign to Him the accolade given to the God of Israel. Here is the recognition that in Jesus all that God is and proves Himself to be is met with. It is a declaration of worship.

But more than that. Here we have a vital connection with the first part of the hymn. His complete humanity was so emphasised, in v 7 and v 8. For we are called to celebrate Jesus by embracing His humanity become our humanity, His attitude and ministry expressed through our attitude and ministry.

To admit Jesus is LORD is to approach the place of harmony and submission to Him and His call. To become His disciples. It is giving ourselves to be drawn into the reality of the God who loves and invests us as a Father, who treats us and commands us as siblings of His Son, who energises and empowers us for this new identity by His Spirit.

May this bring you joy this Advent Season.

The Christ Hymn - pt. 9

And every tongue might confess (Philippians 2.11)

Singing can be a beautiful thing. And so can celebratory talking: speaking about something or someone because you are excited, joyful.

Here is the heart of Christian worship and witness. To tell out the wonder and the joy of discovering what God has done and is doing because of Jesus Christ.

Evangelism isn’t so hard. Not when we have discovered, or rediscovered, a source of joy and delight beyond measure. To realise who God is and what matters to Him. Because we have been shown Jesus.

To be continued .....

The Christ Hymn - pt. 8

…. So that at the name of Jesus every knee - whether heavenly, human or hidden – might bow (Philippians 2.10)

It is hard for those of us who are Gentile, non-Jewish, worshippers of the God of Israel to appreciate the immensity and intensity of these words. Here is the declaration that Jesus Christ is not only the Word of God, He is also God’s last Word, His ultimate declaration to and over the whole Cosmos. Here and in Him is the full majesty and holiness of the Creator made manifest. Here is the one before whom all will bow in tribute awaiting His judgment. It is Jesus who stands at the end of all time in this Creation, holding the key to the destiny of all in the sight of God.

A tame Jesus, a nice Jesus, a docile Jesus, a teddy bear Jesus, would be so much easier to live with. But not to worship.

To be continued …..

As it is written

Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me,`In the LORD alone are righteousness and strength.' All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. But in the LORD all the descendants of Israel will be found righteous and will exult (Isaiah 45.22-25).

The Christ Hymn - pt. 7

…. and has given Him the name that is over and above every name (Philippians 2.9)

Those who look to Jesus will be exalted because of Jesus. And they will also discover the power of His name.

The vindication and preferment that is here given to Jesus is given to the son of Mary. Jesus is not an uncommon name today, especially in Spanish speaking environments. It is the name given to a child born of flesh and blood. And it the one called Jesus who is found in flesh and blood, now both resurrected and exalted, that is given pre-eminence over all things by the God of Israel.

We may not fully grasp, but let us at least glimpse the dignity and honour that is bestowed on us by God, through Jesus Christ. This dignity is for those whose humanity is caught up in his humanity, into the very presence of the God of Israel. Here is the wonder. That the One who came down to serve, the Son of God pouring Himself out, took to Himself our humanity and now holds it, conjoined to himself, for all eternity. Through Jesus and only Jesus we find ourselves participating in the presence, in the glory and the goodness, of the Creator of the Cosmos.

Here is why we willingly participate in the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, moulded by His manifesto, galvanised by His goals. As we find ourselves participating in His ministry we find too that we are arrested and infused with the power and presence of the resurrected and exalted Messiah, whose name is above all names, and whose humbled humanity we share.

To be continued …..

The Christ Hymn - pt. 6

…. God highly exalted Him (Philippians 2.9)

The language here is unmistakably that of vindication, of reward. In v 6-8, we are given insight into the attitude of Jesus Christ, how he approached and engaged with life as a human being. Now we see it from the perspective of God in heaven. Here, in v 9-11 is the response of the God of Israel to what Jesus had undertaken.

Jesus is not simply resurrected, or made alive again. The language here is of exaltation, celebration of accomplishment and its reward. The life of obedience and the sacrifice made is now vindicated and honoured.

There is something fundamentally wrong in our perception of the Christian life, if we have not grasped this key attitude: that we are called to a life where we are ‘co-crucified’ with Christ. Being a Christian is not a free pass to get what you like from heaven’s 'supermarket'.

We are to focus on the Kingdom of God; and to get on with promoting its advance here and now. This is what Jesus did, and received His reward from God. If we adopt His attitude, this will involve seeking to be gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, merciful, faithful, loving and forgiving. Emptying ourselves in humility, pursuing servanthood and obedience to God. Pursuing justice and behave righteously. And growing our lives into deeper participation in the life of ministry of Jesus Christ.

Get focused. Remember, those who live for Jesus will be exalted because of Jesus. Everyone will get their reward.

To be continued …..

the resurrected crucified Christ

'Once again, we must stress that it is the resurrected crucified Christ with whom believers are initially and continually crucified….co-crucifixion is not merely a meta­phor but an apt description of an encounter with a living person whose presence transforms and animates believers: "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I live, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me by giving himself for me." ….. The kenosis of the preexistent Son of God, known in the fidelity and love of the historical Jesus, continues to define the reality of the resurrected Christ and thus of those whom he enlivens ….. As Kasemann famously said, "The cross is the signature of the one who is risen." ' (Gorman, Cruciformity, p.71)

The Christ Hymn - pt. 5

Therefore …. (Philippians 2.9)

Faith is not about believing certain things. The devil and demons believe all the right things about Jesus Christ, when they fear and flee from Him! Faith is about attitude.

Enter the Holy Spirit. Sure, the Holy Spirit’s action is not explicitly mentioned here. But in the mindset of the Apostle Paul, a first century Jew, the Holy Spirit’s presence, purpose and power is implicitly present and entirely assumed. The Holy Spirit is always the active agent of the Creator God, the God of Israel. God breathes the Holy Spirit out. The Holy Spirit is executor of the will and enabler of the way of God, working with creative and recreative power.

God sent Jesus not to die, but to bring life to the world. That Jesus had to die in bringing this about is not in doubt. But the goal was never death. Death was simply the enemy to be defeated, alongwith the devil, disease and despair. The focus of God is always the generation of light and life that is healthy and good.

To be continued …..

The Christ Hymn - pt. 4

Who in His identity, being God as He really is, decided not to make use of His divine prerogative for His own personal advantage but emptied Himself, taking the identity of a bond-slave, becoming like mankind just as we are, coming among us as a real human being: He humbled Himself, committed to obedience to the point of death – even death on a Cross.   (Philippians 2.6-8)

The story so far …..

So, by self-emptying in order to have the mindset of a slave; humbling ourselves, to be framed by obedience. Is this what Christian life is about? Remember, all this is about our being called to have the same attitude as Jesus Christ.

It means we are to be vulnerable people, not religious mannequins. And we are to be dependent and attentive, not just as voluntary workers, but as those under the authority of a master.

It is this attitude, the disposition of our heart and longing, that God looks for and is pleased by more than anything else. This is what He responds to. In the most wonderful, beautiful and powerful way.

To be continued …..

The Christ Hymn - pt. 3

He humbled Himself, committed to obedience to the point of death – even death on a Cross. (Philippians 2.8)

The self-emptying of the God who comes to us in Jesus Christ is not simply a divine ‘guest-appearance’ on the human stage. It is a total disinvestment of divine prerogative and power by the eternal Word of God, the Son of God come among us. It involves a genuine pursuit of servant intentionality on His part, whereby He undertakes to abase Himself, deliberately embracing humble circumstances, that He might express obedience to the God of Israel’s will, deliberately and intentionally bending His own will to embrace the plan.

All of us are capable of fantasising, imagining what we might do if we were to inherit wealth or power. The way of thinking exhibited by Jesus Christ is seen to be, once more, so counter-intuitive to our sinful nature. It’s not a natural thing to think this way. Humility today, as in Greek and Roman pagan society, is perceived as rather a pathetic characteristic. Achieve. Succeed. Become who you aspire to be. Realise your ambitions. These are the values of a corrupted society, far from God.

Those who would enter eternal life in Christ are here called to a radically different mindset. To be marked as people under authority, walking in obedience to the publicly recognised (not simply privately discerned) instructions of the God of Israel. And this demands humility. A swallowing of personal pride. Yes, even a ‘putting ourselves down’. Utter submission to the will and the way of the God of Israel.

It is not the way of the world we live in. It is not the way of the powers and principalities that would hold us in bondage. It is, rather, the way for those who would choose to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

A choice to participate in His purposes and pursue His plans. And, as we will see, to know His power.

To be continued …..

The Christ Hymn - pt. 2

But He emptied Himself, taking the identity of a bond-slave, becoming like mankind just as we are, coming among us as a real human being (Philippians 2.7)

The self-emptying of God in Himself is manifestly expressed in Emmanuel, God with us. In the very act of coming among us, Jesus Christ expresses and manifests the reality of God. Here is God, not hidden on some distant throne, but coming fully in the presence of the Messiah, the Anointed One, to reveal His divine identity to us.

The descendent of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had always known that God shows Himself through His promises fulfilled and in His actions of intervention in the history of Israel. But those in power and who exercised control could simply not conceive that God would so act: divesting Himself so completely of private contentment, self-containment, or any hint of detachment from the real affairs of His Creation.

Here is a God truly to be feared and wondered at. One who gets involved in the affairs of mankind to bring about the justice and righteousness He demands; and who is prepared to go to such terrible lengths of self-divestment to achieve His determined objectives for the whole Cosmos.

To be continued .....

The Christ Hymn - pt. 1

Who in His identity, being God as He really is, decided not to make use of His divine prerogative for His own personal advantage  (Philippians 2.6)

There’s something totally ‘counter-intuitive’ about the Philippian Hymn (Philippians 2.6-11). Especially the first part, in v’s 6-8. It turns upside down the way people think about God. Even Christians!

Whether we realise it or not, we all tend to start with a crazy picture of God. Because we’re up to our necks in sin, in a sinful world. So our pictures of God are really off balance. Take for instance, the ‘omni’s’: omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent – all ideas with pagan, not Biblical roots. Gosh, so where do we get a valid idea of God from?!! In this Christ Hymn, a celebration of Jesus Christ.

The first thing the Hymn tells us is that the only picture of God that is real is the one we are faced with in and through Jesus Christ. He’s the bearer of the divine identity. Noone else. So it says, ‘he, appearing as (being in the form of) God’. In other words, He comes to us as God - God as He really is.

And then it tells us something very real about God. ‘He didn’t try to use his divine identity to His own advantage’. Wow. We use power to get the results that fit with us. God uses His power in a quite different way. To save. To heal. To bring His creatures into real life.

God isn’t just the ‘big man' up there. We only really meet with God when we see Him as He has chosen to appear to us, down here. In Jesus. Don't look up. Look around.

To be continued …….

A wee caveat!

My friend and colleague in Prague, Rollin Walls, has just been reviewing an essay for me. He makes a very important point, which I quote in full from Walls' own work, Rival Versions of Theological Enquiry. The point is that Brueggemann can be accused of reducing the Gospel to merely social action. I agree with this warning - hence the 'three dimensional Gospel' blog entry below. We cannot afform to simply 'sermonise', 'spiritualise' or 'socialise'! We need a grasp of righteousness that points to God as well as to our fellow man. But there is still validity in Brueggemann's point that there is indeed a social, interpersonal aspect to righteousness. Oh, if only any one of us could get it perfectly right all the time! Yeah. Right. .....

Walls, both as New Testament specialist and missiologist, forcibly and persuasively states,

'Granted that such a postmodern paradigm is upon us, we must, once again, recognise that this shift may bend towards a deconstructive or tradition approach to contextual missions. An example of the former might be given with Walter Brueggemann once again. He affirms a deconstruction of 'old missional assumptions and practices.' These include the scope of God's mission being extended outside the Church--a point made often enough by others. But for Brueggemann, this does not mean that the Spirit goes ahead of the Church, preparing the hearts of those seeking God to hear the salvific message of Christ. This would, apparently, be to conceive or practice the Church's mission in 'absolutist or triumphalist terms.' Instead, it means 'religious pluralism'. 'Mission' under such restrictions no longer has a Christological or ecclesiastical focus. It is rather an action theology to redress the inequities in the world. Disestablishment of the Church (apparently this is as much Christian theology as any institutional Church) means being able to recognise ‘the companionable presence of many others … journeying in the same direction.' ‘Christian faith can never be satisfied with a theology of hope that is purely attitudinal, abstract, or ‘doctrinal’’—it must be hope in action. Mission, then (for Brueggemann), entails addressing the injustices resulting from global technology. It also entails ecumenical (inter-religious) dialogue: ‘We may also find, in such dialogue, points of commonality in both theology and ethics, and so expand our conception of the missio Dei.' This anthropological mission of hope, deemphasising Christ, conversion and Church, becomes a movement open enough to include others 'journeying in the same direction'. Mission in action (is reduced to and) involves enacting hope by participating in the harsh realities of AIDS, subjugation (by Western powers outside the West), and ethno-religious conflicts. (from Rollin Walls, Rival Versions of Theological Enquiry).  Italicised parenthesis mine.

Rollin has understandable reservations regarding such a missiology! Rollin Walls' analysis and reservation expressed regarding his reading of Brueggemann therefore needs to be heeded. Because if we lose the centre in Jesus Christ to our Gospel, what sort of Gospel is left? In the end of the day, we own only the knowing of 'Jesus Christ and Him crucified'.