How Do We Get There from Here? (1 Peter 3:8-15)

Posted on February 21, 2022 by salooper57
Sermon viewing time: approx. 28 minutes

Do you know how some TV shows begin with a scene that is full of peril and you don’t even know how you got there? The hero is covered with blood, he’s holding a knife, and a woman lies dead at his feet. The police have him surrounded, are pointing weapons at him, and shouting, “Put down the knife!”

Then the scene cuts to a beautiful beach where the hero walks hand in hand with the dead woman we just saw, and a caption states: “36 Hours Earlier.” What the writer did was skip Act I with all its prefatory material and jump right into Act II. She wants to hook you from the very first scene.

That feels gimmicky to me – an end run on careful writing.  However, I am about to do the same thing to you, only instead of flashing “36 Hours Earlier” I am going to flash “29 Verses Earlier,” and I’m going to cast you in the lead role.

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Bible Theology Class 7: The Tabernacle (Temple Theology)

Posted on February 20, 2022 by salooper57
Viewing Time: 57 minutes

When Kevin and I were laying out the syllabus for this class, we talked about what should come after the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai. Kevin thought that the next class should be on Exodus 25-31, the building of the tabernacle. I said, “Seriously??? The boring part everyone skips when they are reading the Bible?

But he was right. The tabernacle opens a world to us – a world of temple theology that is full of insights for the whole of the Bible and points to Jesus. You may not believe it, but this is fascinating stuff! Join us for this hour that opens to us the Scriptures and the heart of God.

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What it Means to Say, “God Bless You”

Posted on February 19, 2022 by salooper57

Whenever some alarming thing happens that affects us as a nation – the attacks on 9-11, or when our troops are engaged in battle – leaders from across the political spectrum feel it necessary to end their speeches by saying, “God bless America.” What exactly does that mean? What does blessing entail?

Christians tend to cover a lot of ground with the word, “blessing.” “It was a blessing,” we say of the inspiring worship service we’ve just attended, or our west coast family’s recent visit, or of some hardship that has finally ended. What do we mean by that? Are we just saying that it was nice?

Contemporary Christians are not the only ones with a fondness for using the “blessing” words. The biblical writers used them nearly 900 times. Admittedly, many of these uses occur in narrative passages and some of those come from people who meant very little by them or even meant the opposite of what they said. Yet the sheer volume of blessing language suggests that there is an important meaning behind the words.

In the Bible, the blessing language begins in the first chapter of the first book with the words, “God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” The Old Testament scholar Christopher J. H. Wright claims that blessing “is constituted by fruitfulness, abundance, and fullness on the one hand, and by enjoying rest within creation in holy and harmonious relationship with our Creator…”

So, is that what I am saying when I respond to a sneeze with an impromptu, “God bless you”? I am earnestly wishing you the benefits of fruitfulness, abundance, fullness, and rest? Wow.

I recently read Genesis 26, which continues the story of the biblical patriarch Isaac. In the course of the chapter, Isaac is said to be blessed four times. God himself tells Isaac that he will bless him. The people around him perceive that he is blessed. He experiences fruitfulness, abundance, fullness, and rest.

However, as I read, I noticed that the four-times-blessed Isaac also endured four trials and hardships in the same chapter: four times blessed, and four times burdened. It occurred to me that I have always assumed that blessing entails the absence of conflict and difficulty. Genesis 26 refutes that idea.

I know of someone who has had a life that many people would envy. He graduated from one of the nation’s premier universities. He holds a prestigious teaching position in a large university. He has written books and received numerous awards. And yet his life has not been free of hardship. One of his children has suffered from an incurable illness, which has caused his family profound grief. Can it be true that this man, who has suffered so much, has been blessed?

I think the biblical answer must be yes; he has been blessed. He has experienced fruitfulness, abundance, fullness, and rest. But he has also experienced trouble, turmoil, and fear. Blessing does not mean the absence of difficulty.

I have a friend who was recently diagnosed with cancer. Is she blessed? What about the business owner who has had to lay off employees because of supply chain shortages? The biblical answer could still be yes, they are blessed.

There is, however, another side to this coin. We cannot assume that the person with enormous wealth, multiple homes, and stellar health is necessarily blessed. The presence of these good things does not prove blessing any more than the presence of bad things refutes it.

The fact is that many biblical characters who were said to be blessed went through terribly difficult times. Peter, who was declared blessed by Jesus himself, was executed. Mary, the mother of Jesus, declared “blessed among woman” by St. Elizabeth (and by many millions of people since) had a sword-pierced soul. Jesus tells the poor, the persecuted, and those who mourn that they are blessed.

The thing is to believe it. For suffering, conflict and, eventually, death itself, will come. People can live certain of the blessing; I have seen it. Those I have personally known all had one thing in common: they trusted the one through whom all blessings flow: Jesus.

(First published by Gannett.)

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Wide Angle: A Case of Hypocrisy

Posted on February 16, 2022 by salooper57

(Reading time: 3 minutes.)

According to Matthew 27, Joseph of Arimethea, along with Nicodemus (another secret disciple positioned among the nation’s most prominent officials), gave Jesus a proper burial in Joseph’s own tomb. Verses 59 says, “Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock.”

Joseph and Nicodemus had unwittingly been caught up in something much bigger and much older than themselves. Centuries before they were born, the prophet Isaiah had written, “He was assigned a grave with . . . the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth” (Isa. 53:9). Dozens of ancient prophecies were fulfilled on this one day. Men and angels were playing roles in a drama that had been scripted long before.

Joseph and Nicodemus buried Jesus, rolled the great stone into place at the tomb’s entrance and went home. The women who had followed them to the tomb also went home, forced to end their vigil by the approach of the Sabbath.

But notice Matthew 27:62: “The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.’”

How ironic. The day after the Preparation Day was the Sabbath. The women, as we just saw, went home and rested in obedience, as Luke puts it, to the law. The women obeyed the law and kept the Sabbath, while the priests and Pharisees were conducting business at the governor’s office in violation of Sabbath law. Add to irony that Sabbath-breaking was one of the chief accusations The Pharisee leveled against Jesus (Luke 23:56).

The Pharisees especially had been outraged at Jesus for violating the Sabbath. Here they were, one day after his death, violating the Sabbath themselves. Together with the chief priests they slandered Jesus as a deceiver (John 7:12). But if we look ahead to verses 12 and 13 of the next chapter, we find these same men working out an elaborate plan to deceive the people. And, remarkably, they saw nothing hypocritical about their actions. One of sin’s most troubling symptoms is that it blinds its victims to its presence. Ironically, the less control sin exercises over a person, the more aware of its presence he or she becomes.

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The Submission Is for the Mission (1 Peter 3:1-7)

Posted on February 14, 2022 by salooper57

Christian marriage as part of God’s Big Plan.

Viewing time: 26 minutes (approx.)

A few years ago, a cartoon was published that showed a pastor behind a pulpit that had been armored so that it was like a fortress. There was something like a gun turret through which he spoke. The caption read, “Today my text is 1 Peter 3:1, ‘Wives submit to your husbands.’”

This passage has caused non-Christians to accuse us of being misogynistic and sexist. They call us patriarchal, primitive, and obsolete. And contemporary Christians have wondered if they are right…

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Sinai (Bible Theology Class)

Posted on February 13, 2022 by salooper57
Viewing Time 56 minutes

What was Sinai and the giving of the law all about? Was it just rules that people must follow, can’t follow, and set people up to fail? Or is the law more like covenant promises – like marriage vows? How does it fit together? Join us for an in-depth look at thundering Sinai and the giving of the law.

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The Power of Always Trying Again

Posted on February 12, 2022 by salooper57

(Reading time: 3 to 4 minutes)

The title of a recent Christianity Today article caught my attention. It read, “I’ve Reached My Breaking Point as a Pastor.”

The article cited a new Barna study that “discovered that 38 percent of pastors have given real, serious consideration to quitting the ministry in the past year.” I don’t know how that compares to previous years, but 38 percent seems high.

Peter Chin, the article’s author, went on to admit: “I am one of that 38 percent. Even in the best of times, pastoral ministry has felt like a broad and heavy calling. But the events of the past few years have made it a crushing one. The presidential election. Unrest around racial injustice. A global pandemic that has taken the lives of over 800,000 Americans.”

I’ve heard pastors say the same kinds of things. They are tired, wounded, and ready to throw in the towel. I was at a meeting recently where I heard a denominational official state that the church is facing a national shortage of qualified pastoral candidates. The old hands are getting out. Younger people are shying away.

Chin was right: the last few years have been difficult. Political divisions have flowed over into the church. The pandemic made matters worse. During its first few months, pastors were forced to make difficult decisions almost daily – decisions that half the congregation would loathe, and half would applaud.

Yes, the last few years have been hard on pastors, but it would be a mistake to think that this generation of pastors is the first to face great difficulty. It would be a further mistake to think that people outside of pastoral ministry are spared the stress.

Recent data suggest that more married couples are reaching their breaking point. According to National Law Review, 20 percent of couples who have been married five months or less applied for divorce in 2020. That is nearly double pre-pandemic numbers.

Similar stresses exist in the workplace. According to Emile Hallez, writing in Investment News, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis estimates that 3 million people have retired early as a result of the “COVID environment.” The retirement rate of Baby Boomers has more than doubled over the previous year.

There is a time for making changes, switching careers, even retiring, but the time is never right to despair or to cave in. Because there have always been stresses, sometimes worse than what we have faced in the pandemic, the writers of Scripture called people to persevere. Indeed, perseverance is one of the Bible’s most highly esteemed virtues.

Perseverance is the virtue we wish we could do without. But we can’t. Without perseverance, we will lose hope. Perseverance is the foundation of every virtue. C. S. Lewis put it this way: God gives us the “power of always trying again. For however important [any virtue] may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still.”  

God gives us “the power of always trying again.” That is a superpower, if ever there was one. Perseverance may not leap tall buildings in a single bound, but it scales them one step at a time and eventually reaches the top.

I have never been a Dallas Cowboys fan, but I am awed by Emmet Smith’s career rushing record, which has held now for 18 years. Smith, who stood a mere 5 feet, nine inches – a Lilliputian by NFL standards – ran for 18,355 yards, which is approximately 10-and-a-half miles. What makes that feat so impressive is that some behemoth on the other side knocked him down every 4 yards. But Emmet Smith had the “power of always trying again.”

People generally don’t make it through career setbacks, marriage difficulties, or long-term health problems because they are strong or smart, but because they don’t give up. Albert Einstein once said of himself, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” He persevered.

God stands ready to help his people persevere in faith. He strengthens them to put one foot in front of the other. Sometimes, that is all we need to do.

(First published by Gannett.)

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Joseph of Arimethea: The Secret Disciple (Wide Angle)

Posted on February 10, 2022 by salooper57

It is difficult enough to move on after each of the earlier posts in this series, but it is even more difficult to move on after such an inadequate treatment of the crucifixion of Jesus. Saying that we have gazed at the death of Christ because we read a few posts or listened to a sermon is like saying that we have seen the Rockies because we flew from Detroit to Las Vegas. The death of Christ is a mountain of revelation, and we have hardly traced its outline. But if we’re to see the outworking of what happened at Calvary, we must move on.

But we also must take the cross with us. We saw in last week’s post that the cross was like a sword plunged into the earth, but now we find that it is also like a key carried in our pocket. It unlocks the rest of revelation. It opens the door for us to understand the fall, the Law, the Covenants, and the kingdom. In fact, we can’t even understand ourselves apart from the cross.

But we cannot understand the cross apart from the empty tomb. Take away the resurrection (something antagonists to Christ have tried to do since the very beginning) and the cross is a meaningless tragedy.

And that is exactly what his disciples thought on the day it happened. It was an unmitigated disaster. Their hopes had been dashed; their confidence shattered. And now they faced the very real possibility that the powers that executed Jesus would come after them. Don’t forget that when the authorities interrogated and tortured Jesus, they tried to find out all they could about his disciples (John 18:19).

After the execution, the disciples went into hiding, as John put it, for “fear of the Jews” (John 20:19). Violence, injustice and threat of persecution drove them into the shadows. But that same violence, injustice and threat of persecution brought another of Jesus’ disciples out of the shadows and into the light.

His name was Joseph, and he was from the town of Arimethea. Matthew 27:57 informs us that he was rich. I think it is safe to assume that he was also influential. For one thing, he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the national ruling body of Israel. For another, he was able to walk into the governor’s office, be granted a meeting on the spot, and have his request fulfilled within minutes. This was an important man.

John’s gospel tells us that Joseph had been so afraid of what his colleagues would say that he kept his relationship with Jesus hidden. How interesting that the very circumstances that sent Jesus’ known disciples into hiding brought this hidden disciple out into the public eye.

Joseph was a member of the judicial council that condemned Jesus to death. If I understand the evidence correctly, certain members of the council never received word that an emergency nighttime session had been called. One of those members was Joseph. Now, by taking a stand for Jesus, he was bringing on himself the wrath of his colleagues. His action was political suicide.

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Passover and Exodus (Video Embedded)

Posted on February 8, 2022 by salooper57

On Sunday, I was only able to post a link to the church’s website for this Biblical Theology class on Exodus12-15. The video for the class is embedded below.

Viewing time: 54 minutes (approximate)
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Example, Savior, Shepherd: 1 Peter 2:21-25

Posted on February 7, 2022 by salooper57
Viewing Time: 26 minutes (approx.)
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