Look Into the Life and Times of God

Posted on June 25, 2022 by salooper57

(Reading Time: 3 to 4 minutes.)

I bought two side tables for our bedroom, the kind made of pressed woods and veneer, and assembled them myself. They came with step by step instructions, complete with diagrams. Somehow, I could never quite understand the perspective of the diagrams. Was I looking at the pieces from above? Was it a side view and, if so, which side?

The written instructions were worse than the diagrams. I would say they were Greek to me, but I understand Greek better than I did them. The table pieces were, if I remember correctly, constructed in China. I suspect the instructions were written in Chinese, then translated into English by a Russian-speaker, and edited by a near-sighted proof-reader.

I had seen a picture – unless it was of a different table – so I had an idea of what the finished product was supposed to look like.  But how to make it look that way was another matter altogether. I am proud to say our bedroom now has two side tables, though I would discourage anyone from looking too closely at them.

Many people approach the Bible the way I approached that instruction sheet. They have a picture in mind of the finished product – usually admission into heaven upon death – and they open the Bible to read the instructions for achieving that end. But there are problems with this approach, which leaves people frustrated.

For one thing, they are working from the wrong picture. The Bible, contrary to popular belief, is not all about how a human can get to heaven, though it has important things to say on the subject. If we mistake the Bible as a set of instructions for getting into heaven, we will find ourselves wondering why the instructions were not clearer.

People who read the Bible this way get frustrated over their inability to understand it. (I have heard people say so many times.) They cannot help but feel as if the Bible were written in a different language. (It was.) They fail to grasp the perspective from which the biblical writers wrote.

The Bible is a daunting book. It contains approximately three-quarters of a million words. It is comprised of various genres. There are historical books alongside poetry. There are narrative, prophetic, and apocalyptic books. There is also, in spite of what I have written above, a good deal of instruction and exhortation.

These various genres, taken together, comprise a story. The Bible, one could say, is a biography of God. It is his self-revelation, an inspired look into the life and times of God. He is the hero of the story, and it is a big story. It covers eons of time and extends to the reaches of the spacetime continuum – and beyond.

When we read the Bible well, we gain insight into who God is, what he has done, and what he wants. We understand what is important to God, and how he operates – that is, we learn his “ways,” as the Bible itself puts it. If, after reading the Bible, we know how to get to heaven but don’t know the king of heaven or desire his better acquaintance, our Bible reading has been unsuccessful.

Coming to the Bible as an instruction book places me at the controls. The end product of my life then depends on how well I read and follow the instructions. I become the agent in charge. God is simply the technical writer who has composed the instructions—and couldn’t he have written them more clearly?

If, instead, we read the Bible as a book written by someone we know and love and want to know better, our experience with the Scripture is very different. We don’t find ourselves frustrated by difficult texts but intrigued. Instead of reading only enough to accomplish our goal, we read as much as we can to understand. We read carefully, not to prove a point, but to be able to know a person.

When I assembled the side tables, I eventually gave up on the instructions and did it my own way. It’s a shame when people do that with the Bible. They miss so much.

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Is Christian Lifestyle Instruction Odd?

Posted on June 21, 2022 by salooper57

It is easy to forget how odd some of the things serious Christians say and do must seem to people who are not familiar with the faith. I suspect there are times when people think Christians must be from another planet. Maybe that is why St. Peter calls them “aliens.”

Take, for example, the instructions Jesus and the apostles give regarding sex. It can be summarized this way: faithfulness in marriage, celibacy outside marriage. To people who are unacquainted with Christian teaching, this seems crazy. As C. S. Lewis said long ago: “Chastity is the most unpopular of our Christian virtues.”

The biblical proscription against profanity and foul language is another example. Many people, including Christians, think: “They are just words, so how can they be immoral?” But the contempt, anger, and arrogance that lie behind such words are the opposite of the humble, loving life Christ desires for his people.

But it is not just the proscribed behaviors that seem odd to people; it is also the ones that are prescribed. For example, the Apostle Paul, in line with his upbringing in Judaism, calls on Christians to rejoice, and even to rejoice always.

This sounds like evidence of a mental illness to people who are outside the faith. For example, when people who do not have a grasp of Christianity’s big picture hear Paul say, “We rejoice in our sufferings,” or stumble onto St. James’s command to “consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials,” it seems like madness.

There are times when it seems like madness to Jesus’s followers too. I recently missed a speaking appointment, which never got put on my calendar. When I learned what had happened, I was ashamed and humiliated. Would Sts. Paul and James say that I should rejoice in that situation? Wouldn’t that be tantamount to saying that faithfulness to my word is unimportant?

Not at all. Following the biblical injunction to rejoice does not downplay our failures nor does it make light of our sorrows. If I lose my spouse, for example, and continue to “rejoice in the Lord,” it does not mean the loss was not grievous or my love was not sincere. It means that I have reason to believe that things will be okay, and better than okay—for my spouse, myself, and God’s creation.

This example of a seemingly odd Christian teaching is particularly helpful because it illustrates how the lifestyle instruction given to Christians makes sense within a Christian worldview. Outside that worldview, those same instructions seem unworkable or unreasonable.

I can rejoice always, as St. Paul instructed, because the good news of Jesus promises that death has been overcome and that God will make all things new. I can rejoice because a day is coming for me and for all of God’s people when there will be “no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain.” I can rejoice because God is making me more than I could ever be on my own and he is doing it not despite my failures and sorrows but in the midst of them.

Christian lifestyle teaching, which seems odd or antiquated to people who do not understand the Christian way, is intended to help the follower of Jesus enjoy life and be helpful to others, which in turn brings glory to God. This is obviously true when it comes to Christian sexual ethics, where faithfulness to my wife makes her life better, our children’s lives better, and my life better. But it is also true of instructions like, “Rejoice always.”

That command comes on the coattails of an instruction to do “everything without grumbling or disputing.” How much more enjoyable a life without grumbling and disputes would be for those who follow this instruction—and for those around them. But that instruction is impossible to follow apart from obedience to the command to rejoice.

The various lifestyle instructions given to Christians are interlocking, like the pieces of a puzzle. When they are in place, they lend support to the whole and they form a picture – a compelling picture – of the beautiful life of faith in God.

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Just Ask (Matthew 7:7-11)

Posted on June 20, 2022 by salooper57
Sermon length: Approximately 24 minutes

Does God want to answer our prayers by giving us what we ask for? The answer the biblical writers give is a resounding yes. Then are the prosperity gospelers right? What about the “name it, claim it” crowd? And, if God does want to answer our prayers, why do so many go unanswered?

Matthew 7 opens up a different way for us to think about prayer than the prosperity gospel crowd does, which nevertheless takes seriously Jesus’s extravagant promises. Prayer is more important than most of us have ever realized. It can be an adventure with God. Let’s enter the adventure!

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Watch Out for “Christian” Nationalism

Posted on June 18, 2022 by salooper57

Every day it is a new headline, but they all sound alike: “Christian Nationalism On the Rise.” “White Christian Nationalism ‘Is a Fundamental Threat to Democracy.’” “White Christian Nationalism Is at the Heart of ‘the Most Radical Fringe Groups.’”

I saw a headline yesterday that read something like, “Evangelicals Are Imperiling America’s Freedom.” As a Christian from an evangelical tradition, I want to object to being cast as the bad guy. But as an observer of the current political scene, I am not sure that I can.

Admittedly, the headlines are political hyperbole that expose an engrained distrust and misunderstanding of religious people. Further, such headlines reflect an editorial bias and serve a political agenda. Nevertheless, there is reason for concern, for there is an obvious link between American nationalism and evangelical Christianity.

To grasp what this is all about, it is necessary to understand the term “nationalism”. There is nothing necessarily religious about it. Nationalism has been around as long as nation-states have existed. It thrives in atheistic, irreligious societies as well as in religious ones.

Briefly defined, nationalism is an attitude that gives priority of place and standing to the nation. Nationalists subordinate other commitments to that of supporting the nation and seeking its wellbeing. This differs from patriotism, for a patriot can honor and sacrifice for their country without elevating its importance above other primary commitments.

It is all about what Augustine referred to as the “order of loves.” Nationalists elevate the nation within that order in a way that sets it at odds with Christian faith. When the nation assumes a place that belongs to God alone, when government crowds out the church in a believer’s thoughts, and when religion is used as a tool in the service of politics, then nationalism has become Christianity’s adversary.

Secularists denounce “Christian Nationalism” because they see it as a threat to democracy, or at least to their version of democracy. Committed Christians also denounce it, but for a different reason. They see it as a threat to the integrity of the faith.

A growing number of Christian leaders warn that nationalism distorts the gospel. This is true, but it could also be said that a diminished gospel causes, or at least leaves people susceptible to, an idolatrous nationalism. Both Christianity and nationalism have a gospel – a message of good news – but they are not the same gospel.

Nationalism, depending on which nationalist “denomination” one belongs to, proclaims the good news that the nation can bring justice, end poverty, rescue the oppressed (fetuses or LGBTQ folk, depending on one’s brand of nationalism), stop crime, protect our borders, punish the wicked (variously defined), bring prosperity, and defend democracy around the world.

The Christian Gospel, on the other hand, proclaims the good news that God has already acted through Christ to forgive our sins (some of which are listed above), to install his king, and to bring his kingdom which alone is peaceable, just, and secure. It is this kingdom that Christians are to “seek first.”

The nationalist longs for power over others. The Christian seeks submission under God. The nationalist serves as judge of the wicked (again, variously defined). The Christian leaves all judgment to God. Nationalists try to crush their enemies. Christians try to love theirs.

The willingness, even eagerness, of some evangelicals to embrace nationalism betrays a lack of confidence in, and even knowledge of, the gospel of Christ. They have relegated it to the religious sphere and to Sunday mornings. The rest of life belongs to the secular world, which is where they suppose the real power lies.

When the church proclaims a diminished gospel – one that is just about getting into heaven when you die – even Christians are drawn away to the gospel of nationalism, which promises to get things done in the here and now. Dressed up in religious attire, nationalism has been attracting liberal Christians for at least a century, and conservative ones since the 1980s.

The trend will continue in the absence of the proclamation of the authentic gospel of Christ, which is world-changing and life-transforming. Such a proclamation is our pressing need.

Posted in Christianity, In the News, Theology, Worldview and Culture | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Don’t Lose Heart – Pray! (Humility and Prayer)

Posted on June 13, 2022 by salooper57
Sermon viewing time: 25 minutes (approximate)

This is the first message in a series titled, Don’t Lose Heart – Pray! This message on James 4:1-10 explores the foundational link between effective prayer and humility.

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Do Not Wait for the Last Judgment

Posted on June 11, 2022 by salooper57

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “For judgment I have come into the world.” Yet, later in the same Gospel, he says, “I did not come to judge the world.” Did Jesus contradict himself? Did he come to judge or not?

On the surface, these claims seem contradictory. However, if we understand the context in which they were said and examine the specific language Jesus used, it becomes clear that he was talking about different things. There is nothing mutually exclusive about these claims.

Context is important here. Prior to the first statement, Jesus had been speaking to a man who had been blind but had recently been healed. The claim, “For judgment I have come into the world,” is only the first part of a longer sentence, which continues: “so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

It is important to note that Jesus is not claiming here that he will judge people. He says rather that it is for judgment that he has come. But are not those the same thing? They are not.

Jesus did not come, and explicitly says he did not come, to judge or to condemn. His coming nevertheless precipitated judgment on the world. How does that work?

His coming into the world became an occasion – and even an instrument – of judgment. We are familiar with instruments of judgment. A tape measure is one. A plumb line is another. In a similar sense, the coming of Christ into the world is an instrument of judgment for humankind.

The image Jesus chose to illustrate this truth is light. He says, “I have come into the world as a light.” Before his coming, the world was in profound spiritual darkness.

In absolute darkness, it makes no difference whether a person is blind or sighted. I was once on a tour of a cavern when the guide turned off the artificial lights. Everyone gasped. For those few moments, we were in absolute darkness. In that environment, it is impossible to judge whether a person has sight. But turn on the light, and it soon becomes evident which persons can see.

Jesus’ coming turned on the light. If people cannot sense that light or, sensing it, scurry away from it into the shadows, they have passed judgment on themselves. In a related passage in John’s Gospel, Jesus says: “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light . . .”

When Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into the world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind,” he was conversing with the man whose sight he had restored. When that man looked at Jesus, he saw goodness and truth.

A group of Pharisees was also present, men widely known for their piety. Standing in the radiance of the light of the world, they could not see past their own reputations to the goodness and truth that stood before them. The presence of Jesus became for them the occasion of judgment. Their spiritual blindness was revealed.

If I listen to the second movement of the Bach Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043, and hear nothing I desire, I do not pass judgment on Bach, but on myself. My musically deaf ear has been revealed. As the coming of Bach judges me, the coming of Christ judges humanity.

Judgment is, in the Bible, both a present reality and a future event. The future judgment will confirm the judgment that we now, by our response to goodness and truth, particularly as embodied in Jesus Christ, pass on ourselves. This is what people don’t understand who complain that it is unfair of God to judge. The judgment he will certify is the one they pass on themselves.

Albert Camus famously wrote, “Do not wait for the last judgment. It comes every day.” In a sense he was right. We are not so much waiting for the last judgment as we are preparing for it, each day, by the kinds of faithful – or faithless – people we are becoming.

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The History and Mystery of the Gospel (Biblical Theology Class)

Posted on June 8, 2022 by salooper57
The History and Mystery of the Gospel

Did Jesus preach the gospel? Did he preach a different gospel than Paul? Was there a gospel in the Old Testament? What did Paul mean when he spoke of the mystery of the gospel? These and other questions are addressed in this week’s biblical theology class on the history and mystery of the gospel.

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Forgiveness: How to Forgive

Posted on June 6, 2022 by salooper57
Approximately 28 Minutes

How can we forgive? This message explores the answer to that question by offering biblical instruction from Colossians 3. This is the second of two messages on the subject. The first can be found here.

Posted in Bible, Family, relationships, Sermons, Spiritual life | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Is Christianity Hard or Easy?

Posted on June 4, 2022 by salooper57

Is Christianity hard or easy? That was the question C. S. Lewis asked and helpfully answered almost 80 years ago.

Lewis believed that Christianity is hard – impossible even – if approached from one direction, and easy – or at least natural – if approached from another. Lewis made clear that there is no such thing as a convenient Christianity that presents no obstacle to our goals and requires no change in our person. “The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing,” according to Lewis, “is to hand over your whole self … to Christ.”

I thought of Lewis’s 1944 radio address on this subject after becoming aware that people within evangelical Christianity are revisiting the debate about whether the Christian life is hard or easy. Some are saying it is easy, natural, like fruit-bearing is natural for a tree.

People on this side of the issue are concerned to save Christianity from “works.” We are saved by grace through faith, they say, citing St. Paul. They lay emphasis on the fact that this salvation is “not by works”; and they are right.

But were the “works” that St. Paul rejected the same kind as those from which contemporary teachers are trying to save Christianity? No. At least, not if the “works” these teachers have in mind are simply people’s efforts to do good deeds. It was not against good deeds that the apostle waged war so long ago.

When Paul said that we are not saved by works, he was not speaking against our efforts to do good deeds. He was not even saying that such efforts cannot save. Neither Paul nor his opponents thought that they could. The “works” that Paul had in mind were specifically religious ones: being circumcised, eating kosher, observing Sabbath, keeping feast days. Paul rejected the claim, espoused in his time, that these religious identity markers were the means of salvation.

If, in trying to rescue Christianity from “works,” teachers mislead Christians into believing there is nothing for them to do, they are setting their students up for failure and are seriously misrepresenting St. Paul. For Paul himself – and he was hardly alone – called for effort, even strenuous effort, on the part of Christians.

Like Jesus did before him, Paul encouraged believers to “make every effort” – to “strive,” as the King James version renders it – in their service to God. St. Peter and the author of Hebrews say similar things. Paul honors those who have “worked hard in the Lord.” He maintains that he has worked harder than any of the other apostles. On more than one occasion he claims that he has worked night and day.

Paul compares the Christian to the athlete who “makes every effort” in the games, and who goes into strict training to do so.  He speaks of the “labor” involved in living the Christian life – his own labor, and that of others. More than once he uses the word “toil” to describe the extraordinary effort he exerted as Christ’s person.

When people hear it said – and it is often said – that the only work God requires of them is to believe in his Son, they may understand that this work is one of intellectual assent to a truth claim like (for example) “the earth is round.” But believing in God’s Son means believing a person and not just a claim. It is like believing the commanding officer who calls his soldiers to follow him. The believing and the following are indivisible—and the following requires effort.

I mentioned earlier that some teachers claim that living as a Christian is easy and natural, like fruit-bearing is natural for a tree. But if a tree could speak, would it agree that fruitbearing is easy? Natural? Yes. But easy? That’s another question.

The Christian life does require effort, but that effort is itself a result of God’s grace, which energizes it. This is why Paul, after writing that he worked harder than the other apostles, immediately corrected himself to say that it was not he who worked harder, but it was “the grace of God that was with me.”

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Family: It’s Role in God’s Loving Purpose

Posted on June 3, 2022 by salooper57
Approximately 26 minutes

Kevin Looper explores the connection between family relationships and God’s relationships with people. The family, he contends, was designed by God to express his love for humans and reveal what he desires in a relationship with them.

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