The Bible in Wide Angle: Genesis 1

Posted on January 9, 2022 by salooper57

Enjoy this class on how the Bible ties together. This week, the who and why of creation from Genesis 1.

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Character, Power, and the Importance of Choice

Posted on January 8, 2022 by salooper57

Julia Child was almost 40 before she learned to cook. Her popular educational television show, “The French Chef,” didn’t premier on WGBH until she was 49.

Harlan Sanders worked in the food industry after a holding variety of other jobs. He began by selling chicken dinners out of his Corbin, Kentucky gas station. He didn’t franchise his operation until he was 62. He was nearly 70 before he achieved fame and fortune.  

Mark Twain was in his 40s when “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” was published. Nelson Mandela was elected president at 76. John Fenn developed electrospray ionization when he was 67.

Some people achieve success later in life. Some earlier. Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg were all young. So, for that matter, were Alexander the Great, Alexander Hamilton, and John F. Kennedy. I wonder how people fare who achieve success – and the power that accompanies it – early in life, compared to people who do so at a later age.

Power is a good and necessary thing, whether in organizational structures or in nature. However, power that is unstable or volatile, whether the personal power of a corporate officer or the impersonal power of nature, can cause serious harm.

Ordinary people possess power, which is the ability to cause something to happen. A baby exercises power when she screams her dissatisfaction and causes her mother to feed her. An infant who pushes his pacifier off his highchair and then watches his dad repeatedly pick it up is exerting power.

Whatever a person’s age, if power grows faster than the quality of character required for its rightful use, it will likely bring harm to others and will certainly bring harm to the person. Unfortunately, it seems that an early expansion of power can delay the development of the character needed to wield it.

The development of power, and the speed at which it grows, depends on a variety of factors. Alexander the Great came into power while he was still young because his father was King Philip II of Macedonia. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Donald Trump also became powerful early because they had powerful fathers.

Sometimes power grows quickly because of exceptional intelligence or ability. Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg are examples. Child prodigies can exercise power from an early age because of their extraordinary abilities. Mozart could play minuets flawlessly by age 4 and was composing a year later.

There are many reasons one person will develop power and not another. But what about character? How does it develop?

Character also develops in a variety of ways. Parental influence is certainly important. Intelligence and ability may play a part. But in a way that is unique, character develops in conjunction with the choices an individual makes.

One type of choice is particularly important to the formation of character. We can think of it as the “I’m going to do it no matter what” choice. “It” may be virtuous – “I’m going to risk my life to save hers.” “It” may be corrupt – “I’m going to pursue a relationship with my best friend’s spouse.” Such choices are the nodes around which character, which Dallas Willard defined as “the internal, overall structure of the self,” forms, for good or bad.

As choices are made, especially the “I’m going to do it anyway” kinds of choices, character solidifies. When I choose to take time from what I planned to do to help someone, my character is formed in a certain way. When I choose to ignore a need because it is inconvenient, my character is formed in a different way.

It is God’s intention that people develop the kind of character that can safely wield power. God is into power sharing and always has been. The Psalmist marveled that he “crowned [humans] with glory and honor and made them rulers over the works of his hands.”

But the kind of character that can safely wield power must be developed, and that happens as choices, sometimes uncomfortable choices, are made. One place people find guidance and encouragement for making those choices is in a faith community whose members have chosen truth over expediency, love over selfishness, and character over power.

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Wide Angle: Turning over a New Leaf or Turning into a New Person?

Posted on January 6, 2022 by salooper57

Following the arrest of John the Baptist, Jesus made two claims that caught people’s attention. They were: the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom is near. In our Greek New Testaments, these are statements of fact. My old Greek professor would say that the verbs are in the indicative – the statement of fact – mood. Discipleship to Jesus is based on such facts. The foundation of the faith is built on the indicative – on rock-hard, often historically-verifiable, facts.

In Christianity there are facts to be affirmed: God exists, Jesus Christ is his son who lived a perfect life, died on a cross, was raised on the third day, ascended into heaven, and will return one day. Those are facts, and without them faith in Jesus is illusory. They form the foundation of the faith. But—and this is crucial—they are not the entire building.

Frequently, where we find the indicative (the statement of fact), we also find the imperative (the demand for action.) The two go hand in hand. After the fact comes the response. Because such and such is true (the indicative) this is what you must do (the imperative). In the Bible, as Ralph Martin puts it, we have both fact and act, and the two are bound together.11

Consider some examples: “You have been bought with a price,” (fact); “Therefore, glorify God with your body,” (act).12 “You have been raised with Christ, (fact); “Set your hearts . . . [and] minds on things above,” (act).13 “Your Father knows [what] you need (fact); “seek his kingdom and righteousness,”(act).14 I could go on and on, but let me give just one more: “We have a great priest over the house of God,” (fact); “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith,” (act).15

Sometimes people get the idea that following Jesus is about knowing facts – and it is that. Facts are the foundation, and without a foundation a building (or, for that matter, a life) will collapse. But following Jesus is also much more than that. Following Jesus is knowing facts and engaging in acts. (Of course, this is not about earning your way into heaven. Nothing could be further from God’s mind. This is about living as citizens of God’s kingdom, about genuinely following Jesus: fact plus act.

In our passage, the facts are these: “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom is near.” The acts are these: “Repent, and believe the good news (the gospel).” The word repent is derived from two Greek roots: meta (which means change, as in metamorphosis – a change of form); and noia (or nous, which means mind). Repentance is a deep and real change of mind that leads naturally to a change of behavior.

Sometime people try to change their behavior without a deep and real change of mind. For example, they stop smoking, but they haven’t changed their mind about the pleasures and benefit of cigarettes. And of course, they go back to smoking. It’s inevitable.

In his book, Searching for God Knows What, Donald Miller wrote about his addiction to tobacco. He knew all the facts. He knew he should quit. He tried to quit. But he always went right back to it. Then one day he heard a public service announcement on the radio about quitting, made by a man who had lost his lower jaw to cancer. He could hear the man’s odd, hollow, slobbery voice. He could imagine – for a moment he could almost see – what the man talking into the microphone looked like: a man without a lower lip, without a chin. And that’s when he had a change of mind about tobacco. He quit for good.16

Jesus called people to a real change of mind based on fact, not abstract religious data but hard-as-rock realities: God’s kingdom had drawn near, and people could enter it and live under God’s rule, in God’s way, as God’s people. This new reality called for a radical change of mind. A new way of life was being offered. Would they believe it?

The clasp that holds the indicative (the fact) to the imperative (the act) is belief. Jesus called his hearers to believe, and that, of necessity, is a call to action. Mark goes right on to describe how some of his hearers – people name Andrew and Simon, James and John – believed and went on to act on their belief.

The message of Jesus has been summarized this way: “Rethink your life in the light of the fact that the kingdom of the heavens in now open to all.”17 In our age people are still faced with the same decision: Will we believe that Jesus has brought God’s rule to earth? Will we act?

Rethinking our lives, and making the adjustments that are necessary, can be uncomfortable. Living under God’s rule looks different from the life our neighbors lead or, for that matter, from the life we lived in the past. It means living with a new focus on God’s will, not our own. With a new purpose to serve and please God. With new resources – not just money, but God’s gracious help and supply. In a new way – the way of love, not self-interest.

Does that mean that I cannot be a Christian and continue doing what I have always done? It might be uncomfortable, but yes. Believing the good news will inevitably (though not necessarily quickly) move a person from fact to act. Apart from belief, our attempts to repent are nothing more than turning over a new leaf. But when we believe we don’t merely turn over a new leaf. We turn into a new person.

When we hear a preacher talk about these things, the first thing we think is, “I knew it was coming. They’re always saying that. I’m not good enough! I have to change if I want to be a Christian.” That is nonsense! The reality is that we get to change. We get new resources, new desires, new peace, real purpose, a loving family, and a Father who will never forsake us. We get to change!

               11 Martin, Ralph P., Mark: Knox Preaching Guides, Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1981

               12 1 Corinthians 6:20

               13 Colossians 3:1-2

               14 Luke 12:30-31

               15 Hebrews 10:21-22

               16 Miller, Donald, Searching for God Knows What, Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2004, p.58

               17 Willard, Dallas, The Divine Conspiracy, San Francisco: Harper, 1998, p. 274

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Wide Angle: The Kingdom Comes

Posted on January 4, 2022 by salooper57

When we read the Gospels, it is helpful to remember that Israel was an occupied country. Its terror alert was always at red, and that the occupation forces and their collaborators in the government were constantly on the lookout for extremists.

The arrival of John the Baptist shook things up. He was the quintessential extremist. Think of his message, and how threatening it must have been to those who were in charge: A kingdom is about to arrive, led by someone with unimaginable power, and you had better get ready. He will do away with corruption. He will put this land through a baptism of fire, and if you are on the wrong side, you will get burned (Matthew 3:11-12).

As we might expect, his message did not sit well with the authorities, and John was eventually arrested. When that happened, Jesus went public. He had been teaching for many months, but now he took things to the next level. He climbed onto the stage that John had occupied. Verse 14: “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee,” which was the land of political extremism, “proclaiming the good news of God.”

The groundwork had already been laid. Now Jesus began proclaiming the good news. The word translated good news (it is just one word in Greek) is the word used to proclaim the victory of a coming military conqueror (for instance, Caesar) in the ancient world, and the very word routinely translated gospel. Here it is called God’s gospel or the gospel about God. The triumph of the God Jesus told people about is good news.

But the god many people seem to believe in – then and now – is not good news at all. He is hesitant to get involved. He carries a chip around on his massive shoulder and is ready to punish people at the drop of a pin. He hates to see people happy. He only takes care of those who take care of themselves – in other words, those who don’t need him – while he turns his back on the rest of us.

But the God Jesus told people about really is good news. He loves both the just and the unjust. He cares about the poor, the sorrowing, the meek – the people others don’t even notice. He is absolutely just, perfectly good, and infinitely loving. The God about whom Jesus spoke wants people to be with him. He is involved; he pays attention: not even a sparrow falls to the ground without him knowing it. He is not just the heavenly Father; he is our Father, our Abba even (that was shocking language to use of God). He truly is good news.

The gospel Jesus proclaimed is the announcement that this good God’s good kingdom has come near. “The time,” verse 15, “has come [or literally, is fulfilled].” The promises dating back to the Garden, to Abraham, to Moses, to David had been gathered into a single strand. The moment has arrived. The time is now. “The kingdom of God – his rule, through his king – is near.” Sometimes we skip over this message so that we can get to the part about going to heaven, as if the only thing that matters is our entrance into heaven when we die. But you cannot reduce the gospel of God to a method for getting to heaven. Jesus spoke far more often about entering the kingdom than he did about getting into heaven. His refrain was: “The kingdom of God is near.” He was still saying it the week he was executed. In fact, he was still saying it after he rose from the dead (Acts 1:3)

               10 Matthew 3:10-12

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Living Backwards – 1 Peter 1:1-4

Posted on January 2, 2022 by salooper57
Approximate viewing time: 27 minutes

This week we begin a new series titled, Strong, Firm, and Steadfast. The first message in this series is a hopeful one – is about hope – and comes from 1 Peter 1:1-4. It’s titled, Living Backwards. Read 1 Peter 1 (and all of 1 Peter if you have time) and come and be encouraged.

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The God-in-the-Box Problem

Posted on January 1, 2022 by salooper57
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Jack-in-the-box.jpg

An episode in the history of Israel has important implications for people of faith in today’s world. Israel’s army lost the battle of Aphek and suffered 4,000 casualties. In a desperate attempt to rally the troops and gain a tactical advantage, Israel’s leaders decided to send the Ark of the Covenant – yes, of Indiana Jones fame – into battle.

The result of this stunt was everything they hoped it would be, at least initially. Their own troops were emboldened, and their enemies intimidated. But that did not last. God would not let it. Whenever religion deteriorates into psychological manipulation, the real God is the first to leave the room. If the religious don’t go with him, they’ll need to learn how to get along without him. Religion of that sort does not bring blessing; it brings judgment.

The God whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain cannot be kept in a box, not even the Ark of the Covenant. To treat God like a servant or a hobby does not merely dishonor him; it damages the faith of others, including the faith of children. This is happening all around America in our day and is one reason so many young adults have left the church. They can’t believe in a God-in-the-Box. They are right not to.

What happened in 10th century B.C. Israel has application to our lives in 21st century America. Parents who are people of faith must not give their children a God-in-the-Box. If they do, their children will not be people of faith when they are grown.

When our kids were small, we had a Jack-in-the-Box. We would turn the crank, the melody would play on and on until, suddenly, the jester popped out of the box. Our kids wanted us to turn the crank again and again, and it always surprised. But then they turned three, and Jack was no longer interesting. They outgrew him.

If you give your kids a God-in-the-Box, the same thing will happen. What is a God-in-the-Box like? He is powerless. If you don’t turn the crank, he doesn’t do anything. He’s safe to ignore. You can go weeks, months – years, even – without paying any attention to him but, should you want him, you can turn the crank and he will do your bidding.

Whenever parents treat God that way – ignore him for a while and only get back to him when he fits into their schedule – they are giving their children a God-in-the-Box. If those kids don’t discard him altogether when they’re grown, it will be because of nostalgia, not faith.

A God-in-the-Box can be controlled. When you need him, you just say the right prayers, give a decent amount of money, go to church, and wait for him to pop up. You just need to turn the crank the right number of times.

A God-in-the-Box is smaller than us. We can comprehend him. But the real God awes. He is unpredictable. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are [his] ways higher than [our] ways and [his] thoughts than [our] thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). Even his love is beyond anything we can imagine. Who among us would ever have predicted that the God who refused to be put in a box would allow himself to be nailed to a cross?

A God-in-the-Box gets called up to serve our cause. The true God calls us up to serve his. In America today, we see the God-in-the-Box conscripted for many causes – and some of them good. The number of abortions in the U.S. is appalling, as is the heartless greed that profits by it and the political ambition that protects it. But God is not a pawn in the fight against abortion or any other fight; he is king. He will not be exploited even in support of a just cause.

People try to use God to get their candidates elected, to change laws, motivate voters, and intimidate unbelievers. The Hophni’s and Phinehas’s of the world are still carrying their God-in-the-Box into battle, but that is a campaign doomed to fail. God will not be a tool for psychological manipulation. He is Lord of all.

(First published by Gannett.)

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Wide Angle: The Kingdom Arrives

Posted on December 31, 2021 by salooper57

In first-century Israel, there was no king – at least, no king descended from David. But people were looking for such a king to come. Apocalyptic books like the ones I mentioned in the last post had stirred people up to expect the king’s arrival at any time.

Into this turbulent scene stepped a man who was larger than life. He seemed to be eight hundred years out of his time. He wore strange clothes, ate a weird diet, lived in the harshest imaginable conditions, and spoke like the prophet Elijah. After four hundred years of silence, a prophetic voice was again speaking in Israel. His parents had named him John, but the country had nicknamed him the Baptizer. We know him as John the Baptist.

He exploded onto the scene. The themes of his message – corruption in the places of power, the need for a national repentance, and, most importantly, the coming of the one who would change everything – resonated with people. These were not new themes; they were as old as the prophets. But in John the old themes had found a new voice. Here was a new prophet, a new Elijah, thundering the word of the Lord once again.

John the Baptist is one of the greatest men of Bible Times. Jesus said of him, “I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John. . .”5 John was suspect in the eyes of the religious establishment, but ordinary people flocked to him. They knew he was right when he said they were wrong and that they needed to do something about it.

When people asked, John told them plainly that he was not the Messiah. He told them, in the words of Isaiah (as Mark has them in verse 3), that he was only “a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” John saw his role in a clearly defined manner: His job was to get people ready to receive the Messiah, the King, the Son of David, whose appearance could come at any time.

He told people, verse 7: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

We learn from Matthew’s gospel that John said something else, something that his hearers resonated to and that we, this far into our Wide Angle study, will recognize at once. He said, “Heaven’s Kingdom is near.”6 The kingdom – the kingdom for which faithful Jews had been waiting all their lives, the kingdom that would crush the kingdoms of the world,7 the kingdom promised to David and his descendants forever – was, John said, about to makes its appearance. And because of that, people had better get ready. They had better repent.

For weeks, and perhaps months, vast crowds of people were going to be baptized by John in order to make themselves ready. Then one day a man John had perhaps not seen for years showed up, wanting to be baptized. Apparently, the possibility that he might be the Messiah had not occurred to the Baptizer, but John did know that he was special – very special. He was uncomfortable with the idea of baptizing Jesus. He said that it wasn’t his place, but Jesus convinced him that it was the right thing to do, so the two of them went down into the river. When Jesus came up (verse 10) he saw (perhaps they both saw) heaven being torn open. They would think immediately of the words of the prophet Isaiah, when he pled with God to intervene, to act on behalf of those who waited for him: “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down.”8 And now they saw the heavens rent.

I’m not sure what that looked like to them, but they then saw the Spirit descending on him (it is interesting in the original language: Jesus came up (anabaino in Greek) out of the water and the Spirit came down (katabaino) onto him. Again, they would think of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.”9 When he saw this, John must have realized that Jesus was the Promised One. He immediately began directing people to Jesus. In fact, Jesus’ earliest disciples came from John.

In verse 11 we read: “And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased.’” These words are very close to those of Psalm 2, which, very significantly, are addressed to the king God was installing on David’s throne.

               5 Luke 7:28

               6 Matthew 3:2

               7 Daniel 2:4

               8 Isaiah 64:1

               9 Isaiah 11:2

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Wide Angle: Politics and Religion in the First Century

Posted on December 28, 2021 by salooper57

Imagine yourself in a discussion about politics.  Your party is not in power; its representatives are in the minority.  But they are a loud minority.  They are forever criticizing the other party and its leaders and, though you are not in politics yourself, you frequently join in the criticism.

The other party, you like to say, is totally wrong on foreign policy.  They are wrong about national defense.  Their administration is rife with corruption.  They seem to care more about appeasing foreign governments than they do about the welfare of their own people. Members of your party are always saying that they never met a tax increase they didn’t like. You just can’t understand how these people stay in power.

In your region of the country almost everyone agrees with you.  But get out of your region, and other viewpoints dominate, and you find it horribly frustrating.

No, you are not a Republican living in the South or in the Midwest.  You are a Jew living in the Galilean region of first century Israel.  Since the Roman occupation in the forties, there has been a growing divide between the liberals who dominate the South and the nationalist movement in the North, where you were born and raised. 

When you were young, you learned to read and write in the synagogue and the rabbinical school, and now you and your friends love to read the inflammatory books that have been published in the last few decades.  They predict the downfall of the dominant party and the emergence of a leader – a messiah figure – who will renovate the country’s morals and put an end to government corruption once for all.  Because of the Roman occupation there is a profound absence of free speech, so these books had to be written anonymously.  So the authors wrote under the names of the heroes of ancient Israel – names like Enoch, Abraham, Moses, and Ezra. 

These books contained a strange blend of hope and despair.1 Their authors dreamed of the overthrow  of the collaborators, the liberation from foreign powers and the emergence of a great national leader.  He is described as the king, the Son of David,2 and was expected to drive the Gentiles – the Roman oppressors – out of Jerusalem, and expel the corrupt national leaders from the country.

One of these books includes a prayer: “May God cleanse Israel . . . the day he chooses to lead in his anointed one” (his Christ).3 Others of these book promised the advent of a divine being who existed before coming to earth.  He is called Messiah, the righteous one, the chosen one, and the Son of Man.4

There had been no prophetic voice in Israel for over four hundred years.  Some people were saying that the prophetic age had come to an end.  But you – and thousands of Galileans like you – still hope for the promised prophet, the one like Moses, and the promised King, the descendent of David, to come.

When you were a child, there was a serious uprising in Galilee, led by a man named Judas – Judas, the Galilean, people called him. Thousands of people thought that he might be the one, the one who would cleanse Israel.  But the uprising was crushed, and Judas was killed.  But the nationalist feeling continued, especially in the north.  That part of the country was a pot almost at the boiling point.

Do you have the picture? First century Israel was very political and very religious, and there was no separation between the two. In that time, the political ideologues were the religious extremists – very much like the Taliban in Afghanistan now.  These extremists loved the four national treasures of Israel: the temple (how it irked them that the other party – the corrupt Sadducees – controlled the temple; the Torah (they knew it well and regarded those who didn’t as uneducated rabble); the promised land (they had a fire in their belly to expel the foreigners and regain possession of it); and the king.

               1Martin, Ralph P.,  New Testament Foundations, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,  1975, p.  106

               2 Psalms of Solomon 17:21

               3 Psalms of Solomon 18:5

               4 The central section of Enoch

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Saving Grace: Christmas on Main Street

Posted on December 25, 2021 by salooper57
Approximate viewing time: 13 minutes

This brief message examines what the grace of God looks like – grace that was once wrapped in swaddling and laid in a manger.

On this Christmas day, may God grant you: presents under your tree, family around your table, friends in your thoughts but, most of all, the love of Jesus in your hearts!

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Christmas and the God of Surprises

Posted on December 25, 2021 by salooper57

Christmas is proof that God loves surprises. According to the prophet Isaiah, God had promised to bring light to people living in darkness, joy to replace sorrow, and freedom from the burden of oppression. He would do this by sending someone to rule with justice and spread peace everywhere. What is surprising about that? That the someone he was sending would be a baby.

God is good at surprising us. We expect prompt solutions, monumental events, and endless hype. We choose immediate results over lasting ones. God does not. He solves the world’s problems by sending a child.

An apocryphal – but insightful – story has been told about a person who complained to God about the pandemic, about racial injustice, about income inequality, and human rights abuses. “God,” he said, “you made us. You are responsible for this mess. Why don’t you do something?”

God replied, “I have done something: I have sent you cures for disease, for racial injustice, for income inequality, and for human rights abuses.”

“God, how can you say that?” the person replied. “We have no cure for the pandemic, or for racial injustice, or income inequality—and human rights abuses occur more frequently now than ever before. How can you say you have sent us cures for these terrible ills?”

God replied, “I sent people to bring you the cures to all these ills – and more beside; but your society keeps terminating them while they are still in their mothers’ wombs.”

This says something true about God. When intervention is needed, he sends a baby. God has done this time and again. He sent the child of promise, Isaac, to prepare the line through which blessing would come to all the nations of the earth. He sent the child Samson to turn back the enemy, the child Samuel to guide his people, and the child John to call a nation to repentance. And finally, he sent his own son, born of a virgin, to redeem and renew the world.

At last, the divine rescue, for which God’s people had been waiting since Isaiah’s prophecy, had come. But the hosts of heaven sang praise; they did not make war. The King of Heaven did not thunder, he cried, cried like a baby. But the cry of that baby shook the gates of hell.

The Christmas surprise is not that a conqueror comes, nor that his government increases, nor that he rules from David’s throne. The surprise is that he conquers people’s hearts from Bethlehem’s manger and saves their souls from Calvary’s cross.

That there is a savior in the City of David is no surprise; people had been expecting one for a thousand years. That the savior was wrapped in swaddling and lying in a manger is ineffable mystery. That he came to rule is not surprising; it is the same old story a thousand tyrants have told. That he allows men and women to choose whether he will rule them, that is a surprise. The Mighty God came not with shock and awe but with cooing and crying, not with irresistible force but with grace and love.

At Christmas, we love to repeat this story. But it is important for us to remember that the story did not begin in Bethlehem with its manger, nor did it end at Calvary with its cross. It did not even end in Jerusalem with its empty tomb. It could not end there because it has not ended. The story continues still, and we are a part of it.

A surprising and glorious future lies before us, the outlines of which we can see only faintly. For the one born in Bethlehem is the Son of Man, the Second Adam, and the future of humanity lies in his manger. He is, as St. Paul put it, “all creation’s firstborn.”

At Bethlehem the bridge that reaches heaven touched earth. Nestled in the hay of that manger lay the genesis of the new creation, the firstborn of a fulfilled humanity. What this means is that the God who surprised us at Bethlehem, at Calvary, and at the garden tomb, has surprises still in store for us.

(First published by Gannett.)

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