The Christian’s Duty to Pray for the Next President

Posted on November 2, 2024 by salooper57

In 2008, I wrote a newspaper column about the Christian’s responsibility to pray for President-elect Barack Obama. I knew that some of my readers were disappointed that Mr. Obama had been elected. Nevertheless, whether his election was a source of delight or dismay, I made it clear to Christian readers that it was incumbent upon them to pray for him.

A few years later, I was back at it, this time urging Christians to pray for Donald Trump. In 2020, I was playing the same tune, only this time it was for President-elect Joe Biden.

By 2020, I had written what amounts to the same column for every new president elected during the previous four elections. It occurred to me that long-time readers might grow bored with this and not even bother reading the column. So, I came up with a juicy title: “What Should Christians Do about President Biden?” The answer, of course, was that Christians should pray for him.

The title was a mistake. I got a lot of angry mail, mostly from people who didn’t bother to read the article and assumed that I was writing to criticize Mr. Biden and raise hostility toward him. All of those articles elicited negative comments, but the column about President Biden stirred up a hornet’s nest.

And here I am again, writing the same column, telling Christians it is their duty to pray for the president. But for the first time, I am writing the article before election day. I have no idea who will win. The race is neck and neck. But whether we have a President-elect Harris or President-elect Trump makes no difference. Christians are commanded to pray for their leader.

I can anticipate the response of some of my readers: “Donald Trump is not my leader!” “Kamala Harris will never be my leader!”

Sorry, that reply doesn’t cut it. St. Paul urged Christians “…first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority…” He wrote this to his coworker, the man he had mentored, St. Timothy. He did not urge prayer for nice kings but not others, but “for all those in authority.”

“But,” a determined critic might respond, “Kamala Harris, who defies biblical morality by promoting transgenderism and abortion, was not in authority then.” Or “Paul did not have in mind an arrogant, high-handed leader like Donald Trump, who poses an existential threat to democracy.”

I admit that Rome was not led by a Kamala Harris or a Donald Trump, but it was led by Nero Claudius Caesar, whose moral failures included matricide, murder, and marital unfaithfulness. Nero threatened his political rivals, intent on “eliminating the ills of the previous regime.” And he initiated a propaganda campaign against Christians which led to their deaths in staggering numbers, including both Sts. Paul and Peter.

And yet Paul, writing from prison, urged Christians to pray for all those in authority, including the king. But how does one pray for a leader whose character is flawed or whose policies are harmful? Should one pray for God to give them a short life and take them to judgment quickly?

There is a better way to pray. We can ask God to give the next president a “discerning heart to govern … and to distinguish between right and wrong,” as King Solomon prayed for himself. We can pray for “discernment in administering justice” – a prayer that pleased God – so that we may live “peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”

We should pray for blessing for the next president, whoever that turns out to be. We should ask God to grant our future president discernment and wisdom. There is, however, another side to this. We may also pray the scriptural prayers of lament and protest – Psalm 10 is an example – that have a bearing on politics. As Christopher J. H. Wright put it, “I see no contradiction in both praying for our rulers and yet also praying against them.”

Whatever our prayers, they must rise above the plane of politics. Politics and politicians are not the most important thing. Whoever our next president is, and perhaps despite who our next president is, God’s kingdom will advance, Christ’s authority will triumph, and his people will be safe in God’s hands. If we believe this, we will be able to obey the biblical mandate and pray for our next president, whoever that may be.

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Know the Unknowable (Ephesians 3:17-19)

Posted on October 31, 2024 by salooper57

Excerpts from Know the Unknowable (Note: I will post the video as soon as it is available.)

We have a house plant that is like something out of a science fiction movie. Someone gave it to Karen – this nice, shiny, dark green plant – and she watered it and took care of it and it got bigger. When it was in danger of becoming root-bound, Karen transplanted it into a bigger pot. I think it might have outgrown that pot as well, so she put it in an even bigger one and now it is threatening to take over our house. We recently set it next to my side of the bed. I have dreams that it is going to eat me in my sleep.

Sometimes plants need to be transplanted to be healthy and strong. Sometimes people do too. In this passage, Paul talks about people being rooted in love, and the good things that can come from that.

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Being rooted (verse 17) is an agrarian image. Being established, as the NIV has it (also verse 17), is a construction image. Paul loves to mix those two metaphors. He does it here. He does it in Colossians 2:7. He does it in 1st Corinthians 3:9, where he calls the Corinthian church both God’s field and God’s building.

Being rooted implies life. A seed without life won’t root, it will only rot. Being established (better, laying a foundation) implies intention. No human has to be involved in a plant taking root (just ask the teams that pull weeds around the church) but a building’s foundation doesn’t just sprout from the ground. Laying it requires planning, intention, and effort. Both images – agrarian and construction – have something important to teach us.

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People who are rooted and grounded in love are strong enough to … what? What are they strong enough to do? The answer is unexpected. We don’t need this strength so to be faster than speeding bullets or more powerful than locomotives. We need it to comprehend (the Greek word means “to grasp” or “to lay hold of”) truth. Sir Francis Bacon said that knowledge is power; this kind of knowledge is a superpower. Being rooted in love is the prerequisite to this kind of power. Being rooted in lovelessness is an obstacle to it.

The Greek word for power here is not the usual one. This one has the idea of being strong enough to accomplish something. It is the word a koine Greek speaker would use to say (for example): “He is strong enough to do 100 pushups.” But, in this case, we are strong enough, verse 18, to grasp the width and length and height and depth of the love of Christ.

Some people simply are not strong enough to lay hold of – to comprehend – the love of Christ.  We tend to think there are smart people who comprehend things and there are strong people who get things done. The smart people wore glasses, walked around with their noses in books, and got beat up a lot when they were kids.

And of course, it was the strong kids who beat them up – the kids who didn’t wear glasses and would have trouble finding a book in the Public Library. But if they did, they’d only use it to hit the smart kids over the head.

But that is a false dichotomy. Nowhere in the Bible does smart equal weak or strong equal stupid. Quite the opposite: there are some things we will never grasp until we become strong.

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Paul prays the Ephesians “may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and so to know this love that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:17-18). Don’t miss the words, “together with all the saints.” It is not a throwaway clause.  

We will not have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is in isolation from the saints. We need all the saints – all God’s own people – to get a handle on (to grasp) the immensity of Christ’s love. Even though we can never succeed in measuring or quantifying it, we can grasp it; can know it experientially—but only in partnership with all God’s other people. You know things I do not know, see things I have not seen, just as I know and see things you do not. Only together can we begin to get a handle on – to grasp – the unending, overwhelming love of Christ. Only in partnership with all Jesus’s people does being “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (verse 19) become a possibility.

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No one can accuse the Apostle Paul of thinking small. What a goal! “…that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” This is the goal to which Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians has been headed all along. Paul is praying for the church – not just individuals – to be filled with all the fullness of God. His prayer, which comes right out of the Old Testament, is that God will come to the Living Temple – that’s the end of chapter 2 – as he did Solomon’s temple and the tabernacle before that and fill it with all his fullness. This is not a prayer for Christians in isolation but for Christians in community—Christians in the church. Don’t forget that God wants to demonstrate (verse 10) to rulers and authorities his manifold wisdom through the church.

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The Halloween Post: What the Bible Says About the Walking Dead

Posted on October 26, 2024 by salooper57
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

At the beginning of Ephesians 2, St. Paul writes about the walking dead. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live…” “Live,” translated literally, is “walk,” Paul’s favorite metaphor for daily life. Spiritual death was once part of daily life for the people to whom Paul was writing.

Just who are the walking dead? Those who are separated from the life of God. In what sense are they dead? They are dead in the sense that they cannot interact with God, cannot respond to him, nor can they sense spiritual stimuli.

Maybe this will help us get the picture. A greedy man dies, and his body is laid out in a casket at a local funeral home. Everyone knows that he was the greediest person in the county. Let’s say his son walks up to the casket and puts a Powerball ticket for the biggest lottery jackpot in history in his hands. Then he watches him closely. But he won’t bat an eyelash; he’s dead to it. Elon Musk comes to the funeral and offers him one hundred million dollars to get up; he doesn’t move a muscle. To be dead is to be unresponsive (and unable to respond) to stimuli. A dead book-lover won’t care if you put a Shakespeare first folio in his casket. A dead baseball fan won’t mind if you take the 1953 Mickey Mantle Rookie card out of his pocket. To be dead is to be unresponsive to stimuli.

A person or animal can be dead to one kind of stimuli and alive to another. A mouse can be alive to the cookie it finds lying on an abandoned math book, but dead to the calculus on which it sits. (So can a high school student.) A politician can be alive to you during the campaign and dead to you once he is in office.

When Paul says that people were “dead in transgressions and sins” he means that they were dead to God. They may have been alive to other things, but they were dead to God. They couldn’t respond to Him—couldn’t hear when he spoke, couldn’t receive the grace and mercy that he offered.

To the spiritually dead, spiritual things are invisible and inaudible. If you could put someone who is spiritually dead in heaven, he would not appreciate it. He wouldn’t see it, smell it, taste it or touch it. He would be utterly dead to it, like the greedy man to the lottery ticket.

(This, by the way, is why it is silly for people to blame God for not allowing everyone into heaven. It would be like someone blaming you because you refuse to allow him to bring the body of his dead friend to your next dinner party. How dare you turn people away!)

 Paul is saying that these people were spiritually dead. They were unresponsive to God. They couldn’t hear him, see him, feel his touch or taste his goodness. They were dead in “transgressions and sins.” Their transgression and sins were not the cause of this deadness, but its result; the way a stench is not the cause of physical death, but results from it.

Paul’s writing gets even eerier in Ephesians 2:2: the walking dead are under the control of a spirit that is at work in them. It directs them to walk “according to the age.” In other words, they don’t have a mind of their own; the age sets the standard for their behavior, speech, dress, relationships, generosity, goals. More alarming still, Paul writes that we have all taken part in this world, all moved by the “lusts of the flesh.”

Into this sinister world, the loving God, rich in mercy (v. 4) came, making the walking dead alive in Christ (v. 5). This is pure grace. He raised us out of the dust (v. 6) with the intention of displaying his kindness to us throughout the ages to come (v. 7).

What began as a horror story has been transformed into a divine comedy. Halloween has given way to All Saints. Lust is being replaced by love. The walking dead have been waked into life by the touch of gracious God.

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Incomparable Power (Ephesians 1:19-23)

Posted on October 23, 2024 by salooper57

I have already posted written excerpts from this sermon (https://shaynelooper.com/2024/10/16/immeasurable-power-ephesians-119-23/). Below is the sermon video. Blessings.

Viewing Time: 23:44.

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Jesus: Liberal or Conservative?

Posted on October 19, 2024 by salooper57

(Read time: approximately 4 minutes.)

I was speaking to someone just this week who said to me, “I don’t know how a Christian can vote for a Democrat.” It is hardly the first time I have heard that sentiment expressed. Yet I know other people who express disbelief that a Christian can vote for a Republican—or at least for a particular Republican.

I think our assumption is that Jesus would vote the way we intend to vote if he were in our place. If we are liberals, we have a liberal Jesus who takes care of the oppressed even when it is costly. If we are conservatives, we have a conservative Jesus who maintains high moral standards even when it is not popular.

So, is Jesus a liberal or a conservative? Is he on our side or is he on their side?

Perhaps we should be asking a different question. Instead of asking if Jesus is on our side, we should be asking if we are on his. Are our values and actions consistent with what we know about Jesus from the Gospels?

There is a fascinating incident in Israel’s history that has bearing on the “whose side is God on” question. The people of Israel had spent 40 years as refugees, wandering from place to place in a barren, mostly unclaimed land. When it was necessary to cross a tract of land that was claimed, they usually faced hostility and sometimes war. After decades of wasting away in the harshest conditions, they were finally poised to enter their own land.

But there was a problem. There were people living there who would not welcome them. They would face adversaries almost immediately who would try to drive them out. As Israel prepared to cross into their new homeland, their leader Joshua encountered a man – he turns out to be “the commander of the LORD’s army” – with a drawn sword. Joshua approaches him with remarkable courage and demands to know: “Are you for us or for our enemies?” The “man” replies, “Neither.”

That is probably not what Joshua wanted to hear, but it was what he needed to hear. The question was not then, nor is it now, whether God is on our side. The question is whether we are on his. Until Christians get that right, whatever choice they make in the voting booth will be wrong.

When it comes to the question of whether Jesus is a conservative or a liberal, I think there is evidence for both, but there is no evidence that he is a Republican or a Democrat. He calls Republicans and Democrats to join his side. He will not join theirs.

There is only one miracle story (besides the resurrection) that appears in all four primary accounts of Jesus’s life: the story of the feeding of the 5,000. In the story, Jesus takes his closest followers away for a private retreat, but the crowds discover their destination and meet them there. Jesus feels compassion for them, teaches them, and heals those who are ill.

Late in the afternoon (Greek is more picturesque: “The day had begun to recline”), Jesus’s apostles told him to “Send the crowd away…so they can find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place.” Obviously, they had been thinking about this and assumed that Jesus, busy as he was, had not. Nevertheless, it is probably not wise to tell the Lord what to do.

Jesus, like a true liberal, had compassion on the crowd. Instead of telling them to fend for themselves like responsible adults, he told his team to feed them. Rather than getting busy with that, the team explained to Jesus why it couldn’t be done. It is probably not wise to tell the Lord that something he chooses to do can’t be done.

When it comes to Jesus, where there is a will there is a way. He proceeded to feed the crowds so that everyone was satisfied. Then, like a true conservative, he told his team to “gather the pieces that are leftover. Let nothing be wasted.”

When conservative Christians complain about liberals, it is rarely because they are liberal. It is usually because their party advocates for issues like abortion, gender transitioning, and the abolition of police departments. These are not liberal positions, even if many “liberals” support them. (However, contrary to media propaganda, polling reveals that few liberals want to abolish the police.)

When liberal Christians complain about conservatives, it is rarely because they are conservative. It is usually because their party opposes compassionate immigration laws, ignores historic injustices, and elevates one race above others. These are not conservative positions, though they are positions that many “conservatives” take.

As a Christian, I want to be liberal in the sense that I want to be openhanded with my (not someone else’s) resources. I want to welcome the oppressed and feel compassion for those who are different from me. I also want to be conservative in the sense that I conserve what is good, whether morality or resources or the God-given gifts and insights of people who are not like me.

It seems necessary to me to reject liberalism as a political doctrine while treating people with liberality and reject conservatism as a political doctrine while conserving all that is just and good.

Liberalism or conservatism is a false dichotomy for a Christian—a fool’s choice. Instead of standing on an “ism” – any “ism” – let the Christian follow the way of Christ. He did not tread some middle way, like Aristotle’s golden mean, but ascended to the summit of love. It is ours to follow him there.

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Immeasurable Power (Ephesians 1:19-23)

Posted on October 16, 2024 by salooper57

Below are excerpts from this week’s sermon on Ephesians 1:19-22, which focuses on a personal (and corporate) experience of God’s power. (Reading time: 3-4 minutes.)

In chapter 3, Paul tells the Ephesians that God’s intention is to make known to rulers and authorities his wisdom – the absolute brilliance and effectiveness of his plan – and to do so through the Church. The Church is his proving ground, his test track. The church is intended to be the working model of what God can do in the world. The Church is on display as the prototype of God’s wisdom and power. That should make us tremble.

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Every year in January, Las Vegas hosts the country’s biggest tech show. People come from around the world to see the latest innovations: ai robots, personal mini-aircraft, a countertop CNC machine, even a transparent TV – you can watch your show and see what the kids are up to at the same time. This year at the tech show, GE introduced its smart indoor smoker, which burns real wood pellets in your kitchen while filtering out the smoke. It also has a separate heating element which you can control from your phone. (Next year’s model will even eat your brisket so that you don’t have to.)

Imagine you are at the Indoor Smoker display at the tech show. The guy running the demonstration looks at an app on his phone, which tells him that the brisket has reached 130 degrees. That’s not high enough, so he touches his phone screen, and the smoker turns up the heat. He shows his audience the phone and smiles knowingly. But then something happens. Smoke starts bellowing from the smoker, the fire suppression system is triggered, and water begins cascading from above. The AI robot assistant in the next display is electrocuted, the entire Expo Center has to be evacuated, and no one wants to have anything to do with GE.

Here is what we need to understand. Earth itself is a kind of Trade Show, and God has a display: the church. He is demonstrating his know-how and power in a group of very imperfect people, transforming them into what Dallas Willard describes as “an all-inclusive community of loving persons, with himself as its primary sustainer and most glorious inhabitant.”

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This transformation happens as we experience God’s power in our lives. Our desires begin to change (that is a fundamental part of the process), as do our attitudes and our relationships, and we gradually become that beautiful community of loving persons. Others, including non-human powers, see what God is capable of doing.

But when we sin and fall short of the glory of God by refusing to give and to forgive, by acting hypocritically, gossiping, manipulating, we catch fire, ruin the display, and empty the pews. And no one wants to have anything to do with God.

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But what if I have doubts? Doubt is not a big problem. Unbelief is. Doubt exists in the absence of knowledge and when knowledge is supplied, the doubter believes. But unbelief – the refusal to believe – is different. It is not motivated by lack of knowledge but by an unwillingness to submit. Doubt is routinely the predecessor to belief. Unbelief is routinely the predecessor to ruin.

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Imagine living six miles south of town on County Road 7 in 1936. You don’t have electricity (and don’t really trust it, either). None of your neighbors have electricity. But then Edna and her husband – he works at the car dealership in town – become the first to sign up. The Electric Company runs a wire from Mishawaka Road to the new pole and then to their house. If you want to see what electricity can do, go to Edna’s house. They’ve put in electric lights, a refrigerator, and even an electric toaster. The only way you’ll see electric power at your house is if lightning strikes, which is not very likely. Just so, God’s power may strike someone who is outside the Church and doesn’t care about Jesus’s mission, but it doesn’t happen very often.

This is hard for us to grasp. Western Christians tend to see a “personal relationship with Jesus” in isolation from Jesus’s mission, his church, and God’s glorious inheritance in the saints. But when God displays his power, it happens where Jesus is obeyed and his mission advanced. Since the Church is the prototype or the test site or the working model for what God can do, it is where we find his power at work.  

Imagine again that it’s 1936 and you’ve just got on the bandwagon and had the electric company run a wire to your house. You’ve got two electric lights in your kitchen, a lamp in your living room, and one in each of your bedrooms. You have five places where the electricity can actually accomplish something in your house.

It’s a good start. Now imagine that its 1966, you’re still in the same house, and those five light bulbs are still the only electricity-using devices in your home. It’s what you’ve become accustomed to, and you don’t think much about it, but you’re not experiencing many of the benefits electricity could provide. You’re still using an icebox and a woodstove. Your wife heats her curling iron over the fire before curling her hair.

Similarly, we will only experience God’s power if something in our life uses God’s power. Our houses have TVs and computers, stoves and dishwashers, fans and hairdryers, and they all use electricity. Is there anything in our lives that uses God’s power?

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One outlet for God’s power is being a witness to Jesus. In Acts 1:8, Jesus linked power with being a witness. Be a witness to Jesus at work or with a friend, and see if God’s power doesn’t flow through you.

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Helping others in Jesus’s name draws on God’s power. The disciples were surprised and overjoyed at the power they experienced when Jesus sent them out to proclaim the good news and to heal those who were hurting. When we engage in Jesus’s mission, we have Jesus’s power.

We need outlets for God’s power in our lives; do you have any? Every time one of us connects to God so that his power flows through us, it’s like a light comes on in the church. When we are all connected, the church becomes the success of the entire exhibition known as life on earth. It becomes, in Jesus’s metaphor, a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.

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The Riches of His Glorious Inheritance in the Saints

Watch last week’s sermon below: The Riches of His Glorious Inheritance in the Saints. (Viewing time:is 23:00.)

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The Power of Community to Shape Us

Posted on October 12, 2024 by salooper57

Community is in vogue. I hear and read the word often, certainly around the church but also in society generally. People are currently into building community. There is a lot of buzz.

It is no coincidence that our interest in community has increased as our practice of community has splintered. We are lonelier than ever. The Surgeon General calls loneliness a public health crisis. A 2019 survey revealed that 58% of Americans felt like no one in their life knew them well. Last year, one in four adults reported feeling lonely.

The Department of Health and Human Services states that the “physical health consequences of poor or insufficient connection include a 29% increased risk of heart disease, a 32% increased risk of stroke, and a 50% increased risk of developing dementia for older adults. Additionally, lacking social connection increases risk of premature death by more than 60%.”

The problem is, however, even bigger than the statistics show. Insufficient connection not only leads to premature death, it leads to underdeveloped people. We exist in relationship, and it is in relationship that we become who we are. We need community. We are not ourselves by ourselves.

We think about things in a certain way because of our community. We desire the things we desire and dread the things we dread because of community. Our openness to new experiences, our pleasure in entertainment, the value we place on possessions – it all has developed as we have been shaped by community.

Community begins with the Creator. Our relationship with him is primal and is by far the most influential in our development. But other relationships, and perhaps all relationships, are also formative. Because the parent/child relationship begins in the womb and continues through the years of greatest development, it is of critical importance. But other relationships also shape us: siblings, friends, authority figures, enemies, TV characters, even pets.

God made human beings malleable with the intention that they would change, develop, become. It was his expectation that humans would be shaped in community—community with him and with others who love and value them. When Adam rebelled, the community that existed with God and with other humans was badly damaged. Humans continued to be shaped in relationship – that was how they were designed – but those relationships were no longer universally characterized by love and value.

Everyone is shaped by community. Some people’s primary community is family. For others, it is the church. For a great many, Facebook, Fox News, or MSNBC – digital media communities – are primary. Whatever our community, the shaping that takes place there can leave us misshaped. We can be formed into shapes of contentment, kindness, and joy, or twisted into shapes of insatiable desire, fear, and anger. Our malleability, so important for our formation in the Imago Dei, makes possible our formation in the imago diabolus.

Theologians speak of the fall of Adam as if it were a done deal, but Adam (the word means “human”) is still falling. And it wasn’t merely a fall; Adam was intending to hurdle into the place of God, deciding for himself what was good and evil. In other words, it was a rebellion. But Adam fell short of the glory of God, and humanity is still falling. Instead of being formed as God lovingly intended, we are warped into distorted images of fear and greed.

Into this mess, Jesus comes to save us. Instead of trying to hurdle into God’s place, as the first Adam did, the second Adam hurtles into the depths, like a skydiver trying to catch someone whose chute has failed. Through him, humanity, which had “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things,” is given the opportunity to be shaped again into God’s image.

All this brings us back to community. By God’s design, this shaping/reshaping happens in relationship – we are not ourselves by ourselves – and it is the closest relationships that shape us the most. This is reason enough to ask if we are in community.

But then, everyone is in community. Which community is the question. Is our community personal or digital, helpful or hurtful? Since we are shaped most by our closest relationships, it is worth asking who is in our closest relationship circle and how they are shaping us.

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Understanding God’s Inheritance in the Saints

Posted on October 10, 2024 by salooper57

Excerpts from The Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation (part 2)

 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe… (Eph. 1:15-19a)

In a mystery novel, the brilliant detective walks into the room and knows almost immediately that the duke slumped over in his chair did not die of natural causes. He’s certain someone else was in the room when his lordship met his untimely death. The police, of course, noted the wine glass on the tray but only he understood its significance: the dead man was a Methodist and a teetotaler.  

Those are clues for finding murderers and exoplanets but what clues would a detective (say, an apostolic detective) look for to determine whether God was in a church? St. Paul knew the signs and referred to them again and again. When you find (v. 15) the presence of faith in Jesus, combined with a love for all the saints, you can be sure God has been there. No one else leaves precisely those clues. They are as good as a fingerprint. They are God’s fingerprint.

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Notice the surprising pronoun: it’s not your inheritance or even our inheritance; it’s his inheritance—his inheritance in the saints. Paul frequently speaks about our inheritance, but here he has God’s inheritance in mind—and it is an inheritance to die for. And someone did. We often speak of Jesus dying to give us eternal life (which is wonderfully true) but he also died to give God a glorious inheritance in the saints. It’s not too much to say that Jesus was dying to have that inheritance.

But what does God need with an inheritance? Doesn’t everything already belong to him? Doesn’t he hold the intellectual property rights, since he thought of everything? Aren’t all use rights determined by him, since he made everything? Does not “every animal of the forests and the cattle on a thousand hills” belong to him (Psalm 50:10), along with every planet and sun and galaxy in the universe. Everything belongs to him by right, including every person who lives, has lived, or will live. But God is not satisfied to have us by right. He will have us also by love. He is not satisfied to leave us in our low estate, plagued by sorrow, sin, and weakness. He will have us exalted in joy, glory, and power. This is the meaning of the extravagant, inordinate, sacrificial life and death of Jesus.

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Paul also uses the word “glory” to describe the saints – “the glory of his inheritance.” When we look at the saints, we see old Mrs. Smudge, who can never manage to put her lipstick on straight. We see Mr. Contrary, who is about as much fun as a toothache. Then there’s Nancy Neurotic, who is a bundle of weirdness and John Washout, who has failed spectacularly at everything he ever put his hand to. And they – how easy it is to forget – see us. It sure doesn’t seem like glory that we are seeing.

Jon Foreman described the saints (including himself) as the “Beautiful Letdown.” He called us “the church of the dropouts, the losers, the sinners, the failures, and the fools.” Where is the glory in that?

It’s there, but it’s down deep and we only just get glimpses of it. But then our spiritual vision is monocular. We lack depth of vision, especially when we look at the saints. We see only two-dimensional, cartoon-like characters: flat, occasionally funny, often sad. But God has great depth perception.

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John of Krondstadt caught glimpses, but God sees Jesus in us with perfect acuity. Add Jesus, even to people like us, and you get glory. After coming here from Russia, comedian Yakov Smirnoff said the thing he loved most about America was its grocery stores. He’d say, “I’ll never forget walking down one of the aisles and seeing powdered milk; just add water and you get milk. Right next to it was powdered orange juice; just add water and you get orange juice. Then I saw baby powder, and I thought to myself, What a country!”[1]

When God looks at us, he sees something others overlook: Jesus Christ. Just add Jesus and you get … glory.

We are spiritually monocular – no depth perception – but we are also temporally myopic: the future is dark to us. But God sees deep and he sees far. He not only sees what we are, he sees what we will be. And it’s not that he looks into the future, like a prophet or fortune teller. He’s already there. He sees us, complete and resplendent in glory. He sees the Church, the Bride of Christ, effulgent, breathtakingly beautiful, unconquerably strong. He sees glory.

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…take a look around. What do you see? Mrs. Smudge? John Washout? Mr. Contrary? What does God see? “The riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” Ask God to give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him so that we can see it too.

[1] From Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker, (Zondervan, 2011), pp. 134-135

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A Prayer for Your Love Life

Posted on October 6, 2024 by salooper57

A Prayer for Your Love Life (Philippians 1:9-11)

St. Paul wrote more of the New Testament than any other writer – he is the author of something like one quarter of the New Testament. If we are going to understand his letters, it is important to realize that he wrote them with some basic assumptions in place. He doesn’t argue for these things. He takes them for granted and assumes his readers do the same. For example, Paul assumes that the Creator of heaven and earth is actively involved in what is happening in our world. He is not on vacation. He is paying attention.

He assumes that all people on earth and all the institutions of which they are a part are known by God, accessible to God, and responsible before God. That includes you and me and Cal Road Church. This is not something Paul argues; he takes it for granted.

He further assumes that this God is pursuing a specific goal and is employing individuals and institutions to achieve it, whether they realize it or not, whether they cooperate or not. That goal is stated this way in the letter to the Ephesians: “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ” (Ephesians 1:10).

We read over that and miss how revolutionary (in the fullest sense of the word) it is. The goal is to bring all things – nations, for example, and their governments – under the headship of one leader. The U.S., Russia, China, England, France – and the other 191 so-called sovereign states – will be governed by one head, Jesus. That’s the plan. Talk about a one-world government – this is it – and it is God’s intention to make it happen.

But it is not just nations. It is people, animals, weather systems, physical processes, spiritual forces – authorities, powers, and dominions – everything. Paul sees God making all things work together toward this goal and Paul has committed himself – even to the point of sacrificing his life – to the cause. He further assumes that the Philippian church exists for the same purpose; otherwise, they would not be a church.

If we read Paul without realizing this, we will unwittingly substitute an alternative purpose for this one. Have you ever heard the story of the English duchess who was planning a trip to the U.S. in the first decades of the 20th century? She corresponded with an agent to secure a summer residence for her in upstate New York and was ready to sign the agreement when it occurred to her that these backwards Americans might not have indoor plumbing. So, she asked the agent if the estate had a W.C. (a water closet; an indoor toilet).

He was puzzled when he received the letter. What did she mean by a W.C.? Finally, he figured it out. It must be a Wayside Chapel! So, he wrote back: “Yes, the estate has a beautiful W.C. just two miles from the house. It has a panoramic view, and all the worthiest citizens in the county come there. It seats nearly a hundred people and is always packed, but a place for you will be reserved right up front!”

For some reason, she had a change of mind and decided to spend her summer in the south of France.

Now, imagine a Bible reader doesn’t understand Paul’s goal of the universal lordship of Jesus and unwittingly substitutes the goal of happiness in its place. He can carefully exegete the passage, do word studies, and have really good insights. He can use the latest academic jargon to explain its theology, but he’ll still miss the point.

This explains why some people try the Christian life for a while and then give up: they thought it was about one thing when it was really about something else. Years ago, we had a remote control for our TV, another for the VCR, and one more for the DVD player, and we kept them all in the same drawer. Sometimes, I would grab one, push the power button and, when nothing would happen (nothing I noticed, anyway), I’d think: “This thing isn’t working!” But of course, it was working. I was just trying to make it do something it wasn’t designed to do.

If we think the purpose of prayer is to avoid every difficulty and live a comfortable and prosperous life, we’re bound to conclude that prayer doesn’t work. However, if, like Paul, we are committed to and engaged in preparing for Jesus to take his place as ruler of the entire world, we’ll see that prayer works exactly as intended.

With all that in mind, let’s look at how Paul prayed for his friends in the city of Philippi (Philippians 1:9-11): “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

When Paul writes of “what is excellent” in verse 10 (we’ll think through that in a moment), we must remember that it is with the universal headship of Jesus in view. What is excellent (or “best,” as the NIV rightly translates it) is not what facilitates our ease, comfort, or prestige, but what works to establish the rule of the Messiah Jesus over all the earth. Perhaps you haven’t realized it before: the people of Jesus are insurgents. We are revolutionaries, preparing for the overthrow of the status quo and the return to power of earth’s rightful ruler. We are the Resistance. We are the Insurgency.

With that being said, it is surprising that Paul, the passionate revolutionary who spent years in prisons all around the Mediterranean for the sake of the cause, prays for the Philippian revolutionaries’ love life. What has love got to do with the subjection of every nation and people and power on earth under one head, even Christ? What’s love got to do with it?

Everything. The revolution to which Paul was committed is a revolution of Love. The Lord to whom Paul submitted is the Lord of Love. His rule is the rule of love: The law of his kingdom is: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind”; and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).

Life as Jesus’s person begins with, and ends in, love. If your faith does not equip you to love – God and people – something is wrong with your faith.

Paul told the Roman Christians to “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” (Romans 13:8). He wrote, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” (Romans 13:10). In Galatians, he went so far as to say, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14). James, the first leader of the church at Jerusalem, wrote, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.” (James 2:8).

Jesus told his disciples that love was the ID card of the Insurgency. “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35).The reign of Jesus will not be one of domination but of love. The revolution is powered by love – love is the Church’s secret weapon. No wonder Paul prayed for the Philippians’ love. The church can’t do right when love is missing. The church can’t be right when love is wrong.

Paul’s prayer for his friends is that their love will abound. That word is sometimes translated “overflow,” like a river that overflows its banks. Kenneth Wuest says the word suggests something that is conspicuous. When the river that flows through some town overflows its banks, it is conspicuous. Paul is praying that the thing about these Christians that overflows, that is most conspicuous, will be their love.

Let’s pause there for a second. Is that the most conspicuous thing about Cal Road Christians? Is love the first thing people notice about us? God gave the Church no substitute for love. Organizational efficiency can’t replace it. Good preaching won’t compensate for its absence. Superb music is no alternative. Love is what makes a church great. Lack of love is what spoils it.

There are two specific qualities in love with which Paul is especially concerned. He wants love to abound more and more – start overflowing and never stop – in knowledge and discernment. Both those qualities merit close attention.

“Knowledge” is the same word we saw previously in the Colossians’ prayer, and carries the idea of recognition. In Colossians, that knowledge had to do with recognizing God’s will. Here, knowledge is a feature of love. We won’t recognize God’s will without love. That seems odd to us because writers like Chaucer and Shakespeare have repeated told us that love is foolish and love is blind. Paul would think that immensely silly. Only love truly sees.

If Paul is right, it follows that we won’t see people for who they really are if we don’t love them. Without love, husbands won’t understand their wives, wives their husbands, parents their children, or children their parents. Church members won’t understand each other without love. The Senegalese poet Baba Dioum had it backwards when he said, “we love only what we understand.” We only understand – really understand – what we love.

That means if you’re having trouble understanding someone – “Why is he doing this? I don’t understand!” – your first step should be to ask God to love him through you. Pray for him. Speak well of him. Do good to him. That is the path to understanding.

Paul prays that the Philippians’ love will also abound with “discernment.” “Discernment” translates a Greek word that originally referred to sense perception. Paul is praying that the Philippians’ love will be perceptive. Love actually heightens a person’s perception.

When a quarterback is totally in the zone, he sees things the rest of us would miss. Nobody displayed this ability to a greater degree than Peyton Manning. When he was on his game, he could see (without realizing he was seeing) the middle linebacker picking up the slant, the cornerback blitzing from the right side, the safety helping out on the wide receiver and the tight end releasing and having about a five-yard opening. Because he perceived all this, he could choose the best option, throw it to the tight end, and make a first down.

For us, the only way to get in the zone is to love. When we love, we perceive things we would otherwise miss: the delay in answering; the tense facial muscles, the hesitation in speaking. We will sense things we would normally not notice. Love has that ability.   

When does this “discernment” come into play? It comes into play all the time: when we’re raising children; doing our jobs; relating to our parents; teaching a class; talking to our friends about Jesus; even playing the piano or building a house. Paul knows that the knowledge and discernment available through love will help us make better decisions.

The word translated “approve” in verse 10 is an important one in Paul’s vocabulary. 86 percent of the time it is used in the New Testament, Paul is the one using it. It is a “quality control” word. It has the idea of testing something for approval. It’s the word Paul uses in Romans, when he tells the Christians there that they will be able to “test and approve what God’s will is” (Romans 12:2).

We need to be able to do that. Is this opportunity from God? Should I forge ahead or hold back? Should I take this job, volunteer for this ministry? We weigh the pros and cons, but if we lack the discernment of love, we’re bound to misjudge their weight. We’ll think the financial component outweighs the relationship component, but we’ll be weighing our opportunities on a faulty scale. Love balances the scale.

If (verse 10) we can “approve what is excellent” (or “what is best”), we will be able to remain “pure and blameless until the day of Christ …” The word we have here is not the one usually translated “pure.” It is a compound word with two roots: The first meaning sunlight, and the second to judge. “Something evaluated in the light.” Paul not only wants his friends to see clearly (that is, be able to approve what is best), he wants them to be seen without needing to hide (that is, to be pure).

The word translated “blameless” is also not the usual word. The idea here has to do with avoiding stumbling. Paul is praying that his friends’ love will enable them to make choices they (or others) won’t stumble over later. I’ve seen people make choices (take a job, take a stand, pursue a relationship) that eventually caused them or their family to stumble and fall out of a healthy relationship with God. Paul doesn’t want that for his friends.

A therapist who specializes in working with millennials says there is a theme that runs through the various encounters she has with her clients. Whether they come because they struggle with anxiety or feel like failures, the theme that resurfaces again and again is: “I can’t decide what to do. What if I make the wrong choice?”

What these millennials need is exactly what Paul is talking about: love that overflows with knowledge and perception. It’s what we all need.

The result of this perceptive, discerning love is (verse 11) a life that brings glory and praise to God. Sir Christopher Wren built St. Paul’s Cathedral in London to the glory of God. J.S. Bach composed his music to the glory of God. Handel dedicated his Te Deum to the glory of God. Countless churches have “To the glory of God” etched on their cornerstones. But nothing brings glory to God like a person who loves—unless it is a church full of people who love.

Such people are (v. 11) “filled with the fruit of righteousness.” It is helpful to remember that “righteousness” is a relationship word. You cannot be righteous all by yourself. You can only be righteous in relationship, whether with God, family, friends, or enemies. When those relationships are right, they are fruitful—they are sweet and nourishing, making us and other joyful and strong. And that brings glory to God.

We can only live this kind of life if we are connected to the source of this kind of love. This “Love,” as St. John put it, “comes from God” (1 John 4:7). Paul writes, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5) Jesus, the God-man, is the coupler that connects humans to love’s source—to God. That’s why it is necessary to come to God through him. If you are not sure how to do that, please talk with me after the service or get together with a Christian friend whose life you respect and ask them how they got connected to God.

It’s a little like using a hose. Until it’s connected to a spigot, nothing is going to happen. The hose doesn’t produce water; it only conveys it. Water is not coming out of it unless it gets into it; it has to be connected. We connect to the source of love through faith in Jesus. Once we’re connected, the valve needs to be opened. We open it by making the choice to love. That choice is ours and sometimes it is a difficult choice, but no one else can make it for us.

There are people in your life that you need to choose to love. It’s not enough to say you love your spouse. You must choose to love your spouse. Choose to love your friend, your enemy, your teacher, the stranger in the store. Choose it again and again. Your choice is what opens the valve so that God’s love can flow through you.

Love – not only a feeling but a choice; not only a choice, but an attitude; not only an attitude, but a commitment – love is eagle-eyed. Love discerns what is best. Love keeps us from making decisions that will trip us up and hurt those around us. Love brings glory and praise to God.

Dare to love. Choose to love. Embark on a life of love, and things will be different. I don’t say, easier. It will be harder in some ways. But better. Incomparably better.

Go and be imitators of God. Choose to love. Dare to love. Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Amen.

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The Politics of Pontius Pilate

Posted on October 5, 2024 by salooper57

Politics has been described as “the ways that power is shared in an organization and the ways it is affected by personal relationships between people.”[1] It has to do with the “forms of power relations among individuals.”[2] The ways that power is shared – or, in many cases, hoarded – have not changed significantly in thousands of years.

Pontius Pilate, the infamous politician who ordered the execution of Jesus, is a case in point. If one studies the narrative accounts of Jesus’s trials, one sees a variety of dynamics that still come into play in today’s political maneuverings.

Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect assigned to oversee the volatile Judean Province from AD 26-36. In the 130 years of Roman rule over the region, only one other governor had a longer tenure; Pilate knew how to pivot when his job was on the line. Both biblical and extra-biblical history makes it clear that Pilate did not get along well with the people he governed. For example, in none of the Gospel records do any of Israel’s rulers address Pilate as “Prefect,” “Governor,” or even “Sir.” This was a remarkable breach of etiquette. In a culture that lived by honorific titles, their absence here is striking.

Shortly after taking up his duties as Judea’s governor, Pilate brought imperial standards bearing Caesar’s image into Jerusalem, probably knowing this would create turmoil. Jews protested outside Pilate’s residence for five days. The governor set up a meeting with them, but upon arriving, they found themselves surrounded by sword-brandishing soldiers. The Jews did not back down, and Pilate eventually removed the standards. Strike One.

In yet another incident, Pilate diverted funds from the Jewish temple treasury to pay for an aqueduct project he initiated. When the governor came to Jerusalem (his year-round residence was in Caesarea), protests again broke out. This time, Pilate ordered his soldiers to beat the protestors, and many were killed. Strike Two.

Pilate also placed gold shields (probably bearing the inscription, Tiberius, Divine Augustine’s Son) on the palace of Israel’s deceased king, Herod the Great. Herod’s sons petitioned the emperor to have them removed. Emperor Tiberius sided with the Jews against Pilate, reprimanded him, and ordered him to remove the shields. Strike Three.

When the Jews brought Jesus to Pilate to be tried on charges that carried the death penalty, they knew they had the governor over a barrel. He had already been reprimanded by Rome. After three major blunders, he could not afford another run-in with the Jews, and he certainly did not want to be the subject of a follow-up petition to the emperor. The biblical narratives make it clear that Pilate thought the charges against Jesus were preposterous. According to St. Mark, Pilate saw through the Jewish leaders and understood their real motive for getting rid of Jesus.

The Jewish officials, led by the former high priest Annas, whose frontman Caiaphas was the current high priest, were playing to win. Pilate, weakened by past decisions, was just trying to survive. Realizing the walls were closing in on him, he tried to pawn off judicial responsibility on Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, based on a technicality. Herod was too astute to let that happen. Pilate then tried to release Jesus as part of an annual prisoner release program. His opponents saw that coming and successfully parried the attempt. When he said he would release Jesus for lack of evidence, the Jewish leaders threatened him: “If you release this man [who is accused of treason against the Empire], you are not a Friend of Caesar.” “Friend of Caesar” was a technical term denoting loyalty to the emperor. The Jewish leaders were threatening Pilate with an accusation of disloyalty if he let Jesus go.

In politics, character matters. Pilate’s flawed character undermined his ability to rule effectively. Past actions matter. Pilate’s retaliation against his enemies left him weakened and vulnerable to the machinations of political antagonists. Financial integrity matters. Pilate’s misapplication of public funds for his own pet project came back to haunt him.

I wonder if, as the walls came closing in on him, Pilate finally understood that these things do matter. What he did not understand, sadly, was that Jesus matters even more. I wish that our 21st century politicians would realize the same thing.

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Postscript: Pilate managed to hold on to power during Jesus’s trial and execution but was recalled a couple of years later and relieved of his post. Legend has it that he suffered a mental breakdown and became a compulsive hand washer (See Matthew 27:24).

[1] Collins English Dictionary

[2] Wikipedia, Politics – Wikipedia

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