've been thinking about how, in John 12 - when the Greeks come and say: 'Sir, we would see Jesus' - that that starts the time-clock of our Saviour moving deliberately towards the Cross. 'Now is my hour come!' He says, when so many times earlier the text says - 'because His hour was not yet come.' And then he talks about 'except a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it abides alone, . .. ' etc. Hmm. I wonder why their search and query signaled that kairos beginning and the chronos-clock influence, too?
I think it means that when the (further) opening comes, through this query of the Gentiles, (these Greeks, the 'nations'), it moves the issue beyond the salvation of the Jews only - to the reality that He came for the whole world (which lets you and me, perhaps nonJews as we are, get in on this wonderful Reality of God's Grace, Forgiveness, Welcome and inclusion, and also our inclusion into the call to Mission with faithful Abraham (and with Jesus, the 'Seed' of Abraham) - in blessing all the ethne of the word). God is rescuing People, Places, and Things - from sheer grace, mercy and love. God knows, none of us deserve it.
Not only Jewish boys on Judean hills come to worship (albeit a short distance geographically and culturally and religiously), but 'magi from the East' come too (these other signs in human form, of 'the nations' gathered), coming from afar (geographically, religiously, culturally . . .) all of us coming, all of us drawn by God's Word (the Gospel in Scripture), perhaps by the stars themselves (the Gospel revealed even in all nature and science itself, though more obscure and needing direction) - to the Saviour.
For God so loved the world (the 'cosmos') . . . He gave - that whosoever (not just Jews - but those Greek inquirers, too) might have Life (starting now and never ending). . . . Wonderful !!
Whew, a wee Easter (and Christmas) sermon, eh?
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Monday, May 5, 2008
Jesus Encounters
Recently, I met a man from Syria who had only a short time ago come to faith in Jesus Christ. In the brief time I had with him, he shared how he had encountered the Saviour.
But let me first ask: `Have you ever noticed that in most if not all of the Bible’s accounts of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, the Risen Lord, that his disciples failed to recognize Him?! They had spent hours, days, months with Him – sharing fully in His life, as companions and followers along the roads of Galilee, Samaria, Judea, and into Jerusalem. But they didn’t recognize Him as He appeared before them.
I think you could argue that He ‘came and went’ time again to the disciples (as St. Paul puts it - appearing to as many as 500 at one time, on occasion). The same Paul comments that ‘from now on, we do not know Him ‘according to the flesh.’ Somehow, Jesus’ new, resurrected Body remains the same and yet is somehow different. For Him, the seed has already flowered; He is in a resurrection, spiritual body – though one still corporeal (and we too shall one day be ‘like Him’ having bodies like `His glorious Body”).
Jesus appeared and disappeared in those days between his Resurrection and Ascension – seemingly moving through doors and walls without limitation – no doubt moving through and beyond various dimensions of space/time of the created order - and beyond and into whatever the ‘eternal’ means . . .
There follows the Ascension experience of Christ, before His disciples, as they see Him disappear into the clouds and into the eternal (which may very likely be not all that far away – just of another dimension and order of things). He had disappeared several times from their sight, but this time He would disappear for the most part or more fully from their natural and physical embrace and encounter, at least as they had previously been privileged to experience Him. But His presence was nonetheless real, now to be possible through a new communication of ‘spirit’ – to be theirs with and through His (Holy Spirit).
Paul Himself had a vision – a kind of appearing, of Jesus to him, on the Damascus Road (Damascus being then as now in Syria). I wonder if or how many others had a similar experience of which the Bible does not speak and of which we do not know. We do know that the early church at worship, in the height of both knowledge and passion, and in the liturgical expressions – some ancient and some new to Judaism and to this new ‘sect’ – looked forward to corporately ‘discerning the body’ in the tangible elements and expressions – the symbols of reality in the taking and eating and drinking of the Bread and of the Cup (of Communion), as Jesus had commanded them. And in that context they would cry – ‘Maranatha’ (Aramaic for: ‘Come Lord (Jesus)). They had a deep sense of His reality and of His Presence as they gathered and welcomed and worshiped. It was by faith they embraced Him, but it was a real encounter, nonetheless.
But again, I wonder if sometimes Jesus actually showed Himself to such as them at worship, as a vision of manifest and even corporal presence.
Back to my Syrian friend. An Islamic fundamentalist and an ex El Quaeda operative, his life would be forfeit now if he should return to his homeland – in danger of being killed by members of his own family and certainly by the hands of his former associates. He came to faith, he told me, because without thinking or solicitation or any other intermediary of which he was aware, Jesus had appeared to him. He was certain that it was Jesus and the encounter started him on a journey that led to Christian companionship, an introduction to the Scriptures and to a clear embrace and statement of faith, as he became a follower of this Jesus.
I wonder how many other times in our lives Jesus is near – to be apprehended by faith, or by sheer sight (though this is rare and not to be expected or sought). Other friends in that context have indicated to me that though the man’s vision was wonderful, it is also perhaps a rebuke to them and to all Christians that where we fail to do our task of showing and telling the Good News to others, Jesus does it for us, in spite of us, around us. Indeed, beyond arguing Islamic people into Christian understanding and faith, it may well be that such ‘signs and wonders’ will be used by the Lord, especially in areas we dare not go or even where we have friends and neighbours that we fail to reach.
But let me first ask: `Have you ever noticed that in most if not all of the Bible’s accounts of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, the Risen Lord, that his disciples failed to recognize Him?! They had spent hours, days, months with Him – sharing fully in His life, as companions and followers along the roads of Galilee, Samaria, Judea, and into Jerusalem. But they didn’t recognize Him as He appeared before them.
I think you could argue that He ‘came and went’ time again to the disciples (as St. Paul puts it - appearing to as many as 500 at one time, on occasion). The same Paul comments that ‘from now on, we do not know Him ‘according to the flesh.’ Somehow, Jesus’ new, resurrected Body remains the same and yet is somehow different. For Him, the seed has already flowered; He is in a resurrection, spiritual body – though one still corporeal (and we too shall one day be ‘like Him’ having bodies like `His glorious Body”).
Jesus appeared and disappeared in those days between his Resurrection and Ascension – seemingly moving through doors and walls without limitation – no doubt moving through and beyond various dimensions of space/time of the created order - and beyond and into whatever the ‘eternal’ means . . .
There follows the Ascension experience of Christ, before His disciples, as they see Him disappear into the clouds and into the eternal (which may very likely be not all that far away – just of another dimension and order of things). He had disappeared several times from their sight, but this time He would disappear for the most part or more fully from their natural and physical embrace and encounter, at least as they had previously been privileged to experience Him. But His presence was nonetheless real, now to be possible through a new communication of ‘spirit’ – to be theirs with and through His (Holy Spirit).
Paul Himself had a vision – a kind of appearing, of Jesus to him, on the Damascus Road (Damascus being then as now in Syria). I wonder if or how many others had a similar experience of which the Bible does not speak and of which we do not know. We do know that the early church at worship, in the height of both knowledge and passion, and in the liturgical expressions – some ancient and some new to Judaism and to this new ‘sect’ – looked forward to corporately ‘discerning the body’ in the tangible elements and expressions – the symbols of reality in the taking and eating and drinking of the Bread and of the Cup (of Communion), as Jesus had commanded them. And in that context they would cry – ‘Maranatha’ (Aramaic for: ‘Come Lord (Jesus)). They had a deep sense of His reality and of His Presence as they gathered and welcomed and worshiped. It was by faith they embraced Him, but it was a real encounter, nonetheless.
But again, I wonder if sometimes Jesus actually showed Himself to such as them at worship, as a vision of manifest and even corporal presence.
Back to my Syrian friend. An Islamic fundamentalist and an ex El Quaeda operative, his life would be forfeit now if he should return to his homeland – in danger of being killed by members of his own family and certainly by the hands of his former associates. He came to faith, he told me, because without thinking or solicitation or any other intermediary of which he was aware, Jesus had appeared to him. He was certain that it was Jesus and the encounter started him on a journey that led to Christian companionship, an introduction to the Scriptures and to a clear embrace and statement of faith, as he became a follower of this Jesus.
I wonder how many other times in our lives Jesus is near – to be apprehended by faith, or by sheer sight (though this is rare and not to be expected or sought). Other friends in that context have indicated to me that though the man’s vision was wonderful, it is also perhaps a rebuke to them and to all Christians that where we fail to do our task of showing and telling the Good News to others, Jesus does it for us, in spite of us, around us. Indeed, beyond arguing Islamic people into Christian understanding and faith, it may well be that such ‘signs and wonders’ will be used by the Lord, especially in areas we dare not go or even where we have friends and neighbours that we fail to reach.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
For the Church?
How is this new clan and community - called the Church, to be part of God's answer, in Christ?
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything FOR THE CHURCH, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything FOR THE CHURCH, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
- Ephesians 1:17 - 23
Witness to Clan and Family
How to share faith when one is among clans and tribes - and not mere 'individuals?'
It is vital to think deeply about these realities and to try to do Missiology - i.e. to missionally assess implications for Gospel witness. It is necessary to do Christology - to think through the reasons for which Jesus came, in fulfilment of the Missio Dei (the Mission of God) and how He will ultimately overcome (made possible by His Person and Work - His life, death and resurrection). It is essential too, to do Ecclessiology - to see how the Church, the Body of Christ-followers are part of God’s plan, the answer (cf. Ephesians 1) for how all of this is going to get done.
The following is true of rural communities, in the West still, for reflecting on tribalism in the recent political chaos and mess of Kenya, or in the upheaval and division that Lebanon reflects (as mirror for internal Arab conflict - with each other, with Israel, and with the West).
Can thinking about mission context(s) such as the following not help us understand our mission challenges and responsibilities in the West and in the whole world (?) - mandated as we are to preach the gospel to every creature under heaven and to make disciples throughout the whole of the cosmos.
As with most of our own fore-bearers in various times and places, with their own unique challenges, locales and hurtles to overcome for survival and establishment, “the overwhelming need for security led the Bedouin of centuries ago to gather in patrilineal families locked in steadfast fidelity and absolute obligation to one another.
In the brutal, open desert (one could put cold, Canadian winters in our context) where survival depended on numbers and cohesion, each tent represented a family, each encampment constituted a clan, and several clans linked together through descent from a common ancestor became a tribe. Within these protective walls of kinships, father and son, brother and brother, cousin and cousin searched for pasture, camped together, married first cousins to first cousins, and defended each other and their collective honour.
Within the group, cohesion held because overpowering cultural and social pressures instilled within each individual the supreme and unquestioned value of life - the commitment to family solidarity and the assumption of mutual responsibility. In these family in which every person knew every other person, in which all were related by blood, or at least by a fiction of common descent, the imperative of the collective good of the family passed from generation to generation. Near-absolute necessity guaranteed enforcement . . .
Each individual, in both emotional and practical terms, surrendered his or her identity to the family. And like the rest of the family, these individuals distrusted and largely disliked those outside the boundaries of kinship.
The definition of family in Arab culture is not nuclear or even extended. . . A first cousin is like a brother and a distant cousin is an integral part of the total family, regardless of gaps in wealth, education, and social status. This potent sense of family has cast societies into an amalgam of primordial allegiances governed by the most Arab of all utterances: “My brother and I against my cousin, and my cousin and I against the alien.” (cf. Sharon Mackey, "Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in Conflict")
It is vital to think deeply about these realities and to try to do Missiology - i.e. to missionally assess implications for Gospel witness. It is necessary to do Christology - to think through the reasons for which Jesus came, in fulfilment of the Missio Dei (the Mission of God) and how He will ultimately overcome (made possible by His Person and Work - His life, death and resurrection). It is essential too, to do Ecclessiology - to see how the Church, the Body of Christ-followers are part of God’s plan, the answer (cf. Ephesians 1) for how all of this is going to get done.
The following is true of rural communities, in the West still, for reflecting on tribalism in the recent political chaos and mess of Kenya, or in the upheaval and division that Lebanon reflects (as mirror for internal Arab conflict - with each other, with Israel, and with the West).
Can thinking about mission context(s) such as the following not help us understand our mission challenges and responsibilities in the West and in the whole world (?) - mandated as we are to preach the gospel to every creature under heaven and to make disciples throughout the whole of the cosmos.
As with most of our own fore-bearers in various times and places, with their own unique challenges, locales and hurtles to overcome for survival and establishment, “the overwhelming need for security led the Bedouin of centuries ago to gather in patrilineal families locked in steadfast fidelity and absolute obligation to one another.
In the brutal, open desert (one could put cold, Canadian winters in our context) where survival depended on numbers and cohesion, each tent represented a family, each encampment constituted a clan, and several clans linked together through descent from a common ancestor became a tribe. Within these protective walls of kinships, father and son, brother and brother, cousin and cousin searched for pasture, camped together, married first cousins to first cousins, and defended each other and their collective honour.
Within the group, cohesion held because overpowering cultural and social pressures instilled within each individual the supreme and unquestioned value of life - the commitment to family solidarity and the assumption of mutual responsibility. In these family in which every person knew every other person, in which all were related by blood, or at least by a fiction of common descent, the imperative of the collective good of the family passed from generation to generation. Near-absolute necessity guaranteed enforcement . . .
Each individual, in both emotional and practical terms, surrendered his or her identity to the family. And like the rest of the family, these individuals distrusted and largely disliked those outside the boundaries of kinship.
The definition of family in Arab culture is not nuclear or even extended. . . A first cousin is like a brother and a distant cousin is an integral part of the total family, regardless of gaps in wealth, education, and social status. This potent sense of family has cast societies into an amalgam of primordial allegiances governed by the most Arab of all utterances: “My brother and I against my cousin, and my cousin and I against the alien.” (cf. Sharon Mackey, "Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in Conflict")
Love and Hate
Loving ourselves at the expense of loving others is contrary to the heart of the Gospel. Jesus calls us and enables us (only by His very Spirit living in and through us) to overcome such ego-centric, harsh and selfish attitudes and life-styles.
That's in direct challenge and opposition to clanish, tribal thinking that concludes that whether religion, class or culture - the more one loves one's own, the more one is entitled to hate another.'
For 'hate' put diss, laugh at, mock, scorn, ignore, fight against, scoff at . . . all of which happens between denominations (which are the un-happy product of nation-state times and critical, Cartesian/cognitive/modernistic times) and which also happens when emergents get thinking about liminals (former establishment and institutional 'christendom'), and vice versa.
That's in direct challenge and opposition to clanish, tribal thinking that concludes that whether religion, class or culture - the more one loves one's own, the more one is entitled to hate another.'
For 'hate' put diss, laugh at, mock, scorn, ignore, fight against, scoff at . . . all of which happens between denominations (which are the un-happy product of nation-state times and critical, Cartesian/cognitive/modernistic times) and which also happens when emergents get thinking about liminals (former establishment and institutional 'christendom'), and vice versa.
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