Eternal Existence,

Religious Art by Colin McCahon

      In the eighth chapter of John, a chapter filled with discourse between Jesus and the Pharisees, Jesus makes a bold statement. He says flatly "before Abraham was born I was"(v 58). One of the verbs used here is ginomai meaning "to be born". John uses it in reference to the birth of all the mortal realm.
       The other verb used in contrast here is ei∆mi√, meaning "to be". This verb is often used to describe God's existence. These two verbs are used by John to set up a contrast. This contrast is seen clearly in the prologue to John's gospel. It is between mortal birth and heavenly existence (John 1:1-3). The Word was, but everything else came into being (Brown, Anchor Bible, p.360).  John is not the only writer who makes this distinction.  Biblical writers often use the verb to be to express the existence of God. God Himself used it.  The classic case was God introducing Himself to Moses on Sinai (Exodus 3:15). Moses asked what is your name? God answered using this to be verb,  h¡RyVh`Ra r∞RvSa h™RyVh`Ra "I am who I am." (This is of course the Hebrew).This is a name that some Jews called "no name." It is simple, straight forward, eternal and well, undefensive.  It is similar in tone to Jesus' response to the Jews, "Before Abraham was born, I am". Wow. Did that smack them in the face!  There is a variant reading here from some of the Western evidences that states it even more emphatically, "Before Abraham was, I am".
   John is famous for his "ego eimi" responses from Jesus. I am the vine, I am the bread, at this feast I am the light and I am. This use in comparison to Abraham's existence ends the discourse with distinctive meaning. This discourse, since verse 30, has been about Abraham. Jesus puts a bottom line on the arguement with this statement of existence and authority, "I am".
     The next verse lets us see that the Jews got the comparsion. "They picked up rocks". This was an instinctive response. Right there on the temple mount, where according to tradition Abraham sacrificed Issac. "How dare he!"  But Jesus encryted  (e∆kruvbh) Himself and escaped.

Great I Am by Colin McCahon

     Finally we see the Psalmist use this great eternal verb in chapter 92:2, "before the mountains came into being ... from age to age You are." This again is simple, direct and undefined. But God who may have wanted to stay undefined and eternal,  rethought His position. Instead of telling the Jews that "I am " sent Moses, God came Himself. The Great undefined became defined. Since we could not handle that concept we picked up stones. I guess in the last analysis God is easier to deal with if He stays "out there", in the eternal ether, massless, matterless, is-less. When He becomes the "I am" in front of us, we have to face our unbelief. "He is" became one of me. Can I become an "I am" like Him? Is that right?   Can I become eternal? Can the Great  "I am" become the Great(er) "We are?"

Eucharistic Feast

The Fullness of the Lord

      John the evangelist tells us an interesting story of Jesus facing a culinary problem. We are in a time of eating and feasting, Thanksgiving. A great time of the year. Every year I watch my wife prepare for this feast for our family and friends. There is a lot of food preparation going on as I am sure it is all over America. The anixiety is always will there be enough? A natural problem for any host no matter what the occasion.
       Jesus faced this same problem. He had to feed the crowd on the hills surrounding the Sea of Galilee. His answer to this problem was especially appropriate for this season. John tells us when Christ saw the hungry people, He took what little He could find, and He gave thanks and broken the bread. That blessing feed everyone on that hillside. It was thousands. Twelve baskets were filled with left overs! Talk about Thanksgiving left overs! The Greek word for this "Thanks given by Christ" is  eujcaristhvsaß. It literally means "giving thanks". It is also the word we use for the eucharist. The root word is "grace". Saying grace,  giving thanks, communion with Christ,  all tied into one. 
       It is no wonder that thanks giving creates the atmosphere for the miracle of fullness. Giving thanks  brings us into communion with our Father and His family where all fullness dwells. Happy Giving Thanks everyone.

What Would You Choose?

"He chose... Poorly"

     Lately our fellowship has been focusing on lessons of obedience. The lessons have been coming in concert with the principle found in Deuteronomy 15:16-17 KJV.  What happens when the Lord sets you free? What do you do when the obligations to serve are removed? Reading this scripture we get a clear understanding of a choice that a slave can make after serving for 6 years. He can leave or stay. Simple. If he chooses to leave, the master was to give him provisions and allow him to leave with his blessings.  God is saying we have the same choice.  Not that we could ever 'leave' the Lord, but He might want us to take another, deeper step in walking with Him and serving Him. A step that might cost us some of our precious freedoms. We can choose to go with his blessing or we can choose to stay for a deeper commitment to him. The slave if he stayed would have an aul place through his ear as a sign. This was done, I am sure with a cube of ice.  I wonder if they had stylish rings? Maybe a star of David or a brand for that particular ranch. There might have been a ear-ring shop with beautiful stones, you know, so at least it would look nice.  I am having a little fun because in real life who would choose to be a permanent slave? Really? Because it does sound great, spiritual, religious, righteous and we all want that or we wouldn't be going to church and sing about Jesus being our Lord. But is there a difference between going to church and being a servant, a live-in maid type servant, 24/7. It makes me stop and think. Who really chooses to do that? Certain things I want to submit to God then there are times I want for myself, like facebook. Come on. (Did you read about the preacher in New Jersey who made his staff get off of Facebook or lose their job?) Is he requiring servitude?
     I grew up in the still proud, "hell no we ain't forgettin'", region of the world, the rebel south. There were many stories, in fact there is one in my own family, about slaves who refused to leave their master after the Civil War. My great however many great grandfather had a slave that willingly stayed on after the great conflagration.  In fact this particular slave requested to be buried at my g-grandfather's feet after he died. I have seen their graves. This is repulsive to most people you talk to these days. And rightfully so, no person should own another. Yet, this is definitely what this scripture says. This goes against every independent thought which is nearly every thought of this age. "But I want to be free, free, free and I just got to be me, me, me." That's actually a song by Deniece Williams. 

       Christ gave himself freely to do His father's will, so I know that it is possible. But it is not something you can just mix up in the sink, like Love Potion #9. In fact at first my religious self said "yeah, I can do this". But the more I worked with it and considered the cost of obedience it became simplistically hard. The choice was too overwhelming. It seemed I needed an intermediate step between "thanks for loosing my bonds" and "put that hot iron through my lobe, I'm astayin'".  Who would choose an aul in the ear unless something else happened first, like a preparation of heart. I know that is a duh, but sometimes I need help.  I found an old sermon by J.R. Stevens titled What Would You Choose?(This Week Volume VI, p.243). It is taken from the scripture in Psalm 51:15-17 and I think it helps me to get down the road to deeper obedience.

       Psalms 51 prophetically said in verse 16, "You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings".  But I thought we were talking about sacrifice? Isn't it a sacrifice to be obedient, to be a slave? I have done a lot, what else do I need to do to be that 'real' servant?  I realized that at some point sacrifices stopped being that meaningful to God. The one sacrifice that counted was Christ's and His sacrifice was obedience. Another place these verses in Psalms 51 are quoted is in Hebrews 10:6-9, "In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do your will, O God."  Not in offerings and sacrifices, but to do His will. What is the step between these two verses? I guess that is were I am. The motivation to serve, I guess is what I am looking for.  I believe between stopping my own works and entering into His works is a broken spirit. I think that is why David put it there. "Only A broken and a contrite heart will enter" isn't that Indiana Jones - "Search for the Holy Grail? 

Holy Grail

       So what does God delight in that I might be obedient. There has to be something I can do that helps me reach that spot. Well simply enough David tells us in verse 17 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."  Now when I finally get down to this quality of spirit my resistance leaves. My desire changes. I want what he wants. I can't explain it, in fact it may be magic, like that Indian ink sink potion. Once my spirit is broken then the serving Him is all I want. It is a choice I can freely make. Stevens said "The dealings of God are designed to bring about that which in the sight of God is of the greatest value. I know that He is concerned that you walk with Him, that you be led by Him. I know that He is concerned about your dedication to bless one another and to minister to one another. But in the final analysis, the greatest thing of all is that He looks down upon you and says, “To this one will I look—the one who has a broken and a contrite spirit before Me” (Isaiah 66:2). A man may have many other things, but nothing is going to equal a broken spirit before the Lord." Again the writer of Hebrew said,
      "In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. (but a broken and contrite spirit, I will not despise) Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God". 

          

Sunday Morning - a picture to hang on a peg.

Sunday Morning by A.B. Durand

    I was raised in a Southern Baptist minister's family. My dad was a pastor, what we might now call a "senior pastor".  Sunday mornings as you might understand, were very important to my family. Mom would put on a vinyl of George Beverly Shea, Dad would be standing, shaving at the mirror, reciting his sermon and Steve and I would be hiding under the covers waiting until the last possible threat from our mom before getting up. No one was allowed to be emotional or loud on Sunday morning. Dad wanted a certain atmosphere so he would be ready for the "Sunday show". It was Sunday morning, after all, the Lord's Day.
     All my years growing up in our home we had a picture on our living room wall entitled, "Sunday Morning". It was a colonial era picture of a family walking out of their home going to church. The artist was A. B. Durand. After I married and I had a family of my own, I told my natural family I wanted this picture for myself. That was a mistake. Suddenly the value of that painting skyrocketed and everybody including some visiting ministers wanted that picture! It has since "disappeared" into the dark recesses of my family.
       Thinking about that picture made me decide that I would just get a copy and have it framed and be done with it. So I began, not knowing the painter's name, to google "Sunday Morning" and I clicked "image". How difficult could it be? Sunday morning as it turned out was a popular name for nearly everything imaginable.  Let's see there were; tranquil pastoral scenes, busy streets, gross looking breakfasts of eggs and bacon, alluring men and women, well I could go on but you take a look. The page looked like every thought I'd ever had of anything, except, you guessed it, A.B. Durand's idealized Sunday Morning.
         Sunday Mornings in our day has taken on different meaning from those days of Durand or even mother's tranquil mornings with George Beverly Shea. Sunday used to be the Lord's day! Whatever happened to that concept? Come to think of it,  it was probably Jesus' fault. Wasn't it Jesus who said "Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath"(Mark 2:27 KJV)? One look at that page and we can see what man did with the Sabbath. One in about every 10-12 pictures was a church or something family, everything else was snap shots of man's mind, cluttered and crazy. This was certainly man's Sabbath.
      The Sabbath may be made for man but wasn't man made to honor God? It made me question myself on how much am I honoring the Sabbath or the Lord's day or the Lord on any of His days. I know we do not celebrate Saturdays, but worship on Sunday. Somewhere, it seems, in the shuffle something got lost. If I find a copy of that picture I want to hang it prominently on our wall.  It should symbolize my placing the Lord first in my life. Like the peg, a nail driven into the wall prophesied by Isaiah as a hanger for what the Lord wants (The Peg in a Firm Place, This Week, Volume IX (1978)p 160). To be obedient to what He wants is what the picture now means to me. Sure, I probably have the freedom to do otherwise but the freedom I want is to do His will. I will count myself lucky if I am able to do his will with the time I have. Maybe I am still facing the day with Lord like I did those Sunday mornings hiding under the sheets. Maybe I 'll go get a vinyl, well a mp3, of GB Shea and start facing my day with more of an atmosphere for God, like the painting has been saying all along, "Step out, motion gently to your wife, show her the way down the road to the house of God. Hurry up that son of yours to get that shoe tied. Don't  be late. Get out there behind your father. He's been walking that way for a long time."
  Sunday Morning, an oil on canvas, by Asher Brown Durand.

The Reluctant Messiah

Nadine Rippelmeyer
Gethsemane to Golgotha

    Where in the scriptures do we read about Jesus learning obedience? Certainly in Gethsemane Jesus suffered and became obedient, "even unto death"(Phil.2:8). In Hebrews the author unpacks for us what that looked like. Jesus became obedient through the things he suffered (Heb.5:7-9).  A Son becoming obedient to His Father's will.

"Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; 

Though he were a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered; 

And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; "

     The scriptures tell us that he was a Son and there are many places in the Bible that show this about Christ.  The places where He, like any son, had to learn to obey are not as easy to find. In Hebrews 5: 7-9 we get a window into the process of learning to be perfect. The word for perfection in the Greek is teleiow. It is the same word where we get 'telos' or 'teleology'.  The aspect in Greek colors the translation to mean finished, completed, perfect product. This process of perfection, completion or maturation, whatever word you want to use, in the Christian walk can be difficult. Because it can be so difficult, it is nice to have an example for us to follow. Christ was our earthly example. I personally believe the perfection continued to the cross. To the final, completed act of God's will for Christ. In John 19:30 Christ used this same word as the last word he spoke on the cross, "It is finished" tete√lestai. Was He finishing or  completing the will of His Father?
       The Gospel of John seeks to prove Christ Deity. To most of us this is accomplished, it is clear. But in my life I need to see his humanity, too. If we magnify his Deity above His humanity, we have mostly God, some man.  Our Nicene heritage tells us that Jesus was fully God, fully man. What about His humanity?
      Most pictures of Christ are rendered to show his divine nature not His humanity. It's hard to find a picture of Gethsemane with Jesus sweating blood. Most pictures show him in perfect repose. Some have angels attending Him. Others have a divine light shinning on him. Few if any have sweat drops of blood running down his face.  I always thought sweat of any kind was, well earthy. A picture of a sweaty, bloody praying Jesus, I can't find.  We might not want to see that it was hard for Him to do the Father's will. We might want to make excuses for him, after all it was his death he was trying to avoid. But avoidance was HIS prayer. This picture of Jesus can be problematic for us, but it may contain connections for our perfection. Is there another place where Jesus was reluctant to do God's will?

      Another place Jesus' actions showed indecision was in John 7. Here we see Jesus trying to avoid going to the Feast in Jerusalem. This pericope has caused translators/scribes problems throughout the centuries. The problem was Jesus' unwillingness to go to the feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. He was talking with his brothers who were taunting him. Obviously, Jesus had already thought about the feast. This was a big event and all Jews were commanded by their religion to go. He had already made up his mind. So the bros wanted him to go and reveal himself publicly at the feast for they said "no one does these things (signs/miracles) except he show himself to the world." Jesus flatly told the bros that he was not going to the Feast, "it was not his time". They should go on without Him.  Yet, He went later to the feast and presented Himself to the "world" publicly, just as His brothers recommended. This has not set well with Biblical scholars. Early in some manuscripts we find the word "yet" redacted. You read "You go up to the feast, I don't go yet to this feast." The "yet" is not in the best original copy and was placed there by one of the copyist.  The KJV has this "yet" clearly in its text. Other commentators spill a lot of ink trying to explain this situation. Not one has suggested that Jesus missed it. That he evidently realized his bros were right and he needed to be at the Feast. His brothers were right, even though they did not believe that their half-brother was the Messiah. Don't we have to be open to God speaking to us through vessels we may not think are worthy? Christ clearly lectured them and put them down, and then recanted and went to the Feast. He probably ate some of that good old Tabernacle humble pie when He saw them. I wonder if crow is kosher?  Anyway, this is how I know my saviour was fully human, fully God. He, as I,  had to learn obedience to the Father. He admittedly was better at it than I, but it is good to see His human side, too. We are suppose to see the human side (John 1:14).  That is part of whom Christ was. That is the reason he came to earth. And yet this is not the first time Christ changed His mind. :-(
     In John the second chapter the author showed us this vascilating side of Christ. Jesus, his mother and his entourage were at a wedding in Cana. His mother told Him there was a problem at the wedding. The host was out of wine. She told him to do something. He called her "woman", not an endearing term.  He said "woman, my hour is not yet come." Nearly the same thing that he told his brothers!  He was very reluctant to perform his first public miracle. He went ahead and made the wine, even though he had said no. He went ahead to the feast even though he said no. I guess it was His time. Or was His timing off?  How do you read these two incidents? Maybe you have a good explanation. To me it shows the struggle of the human to submit to the divine. Our will, our way, instead of His will, His way.  It was preparation for the Cross. It foreshadowed Gethsemane. Christ could sweat blood so that God would have HIS way, so that He could end His conversation with "nevertheless, not my will but yours". He had learned that the Father's way is the best.
      This could be a disturbing picture we have of Jesus. We want Him to flow effortlessly through the pages of his life without making a mistake or saying one thing and doing another. We want Him to be decisive and clear. Right on every time!  "No and I mean it!" is the way we want Him to be. Not "No! Well,  okay, maybe your right and I'm wrong." This is not the Messiah we want. Oopsie, that sounds a little like the Jewish leaders. They were looking for a different Messiah too. But our Messiah is the one who came to do His Father's will, not His own.

      What Messiah are we looking for? One that was acquainted with our sins. One that lived in our flesh and suffered what we suffer. One that struggled with life. That had trouble relating to His family, or vice versa. An anointed one that might have had trouble doing the will of His father. These two Biblical stories show Jesus stumbling to know and do "what the Father does". He sometimes tried to do what he wanted and then changed to do what others suggested. Could this be a case where Christ was learning obedience? Maybe the Father set up the water to wine scenario. And He sent the brothers to push Jesus to go to the feast. Maybe we are seeing the "perfecting" of Christ's obedience. I react to situations in my life, too. Someone, maybe someone close to me may suggest I do something. It may be the right thing for me. But I can react, be abrupt and put them off. Sometimes tell them why they are wrong. Then relent and realize they were right. Isn't that what Jesus did in these two stories?
       We see this certainly in Hebrews 5: 7-9 as a process. The word for obedience finds it root in the Greek word akouo, hearing, obeying. Reluctance to hear and do God's will can be connected. Our will is often cries too loud to hear God's gentle voice. Christ showed us the way as it says in Hebrew 5:6 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; This is our example and application of how to learn obedience, on our knees in prayer. To me He is the perfect example of learning obedience. Obedience like all of our salvation is received.  No one is born with perfect submission. We are born with free will. We have to learn to lay it down. In the learning we have to identify where the reluctance is to do God's will. Maybe His humility was recognized by the brothers when they saw Him at the feast. Who knows. James and Jude ended up being important men in the early church. But the importance for me is that obedience is even something Christ had to learn. The scriptures say that because of His obedience I can receive obedience. "And by being perfected in this way, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,"  


A message by Gary Hargrave entitled "Learn Obedience!" was brought in North Hills, California. 

The Way of Change

    This weekend I spend time in San Diego on some business for Shiloh University. While there I attended the Church of His Kingdom. The Senior pastor brought a word on change. It was a pastoral word to his sheep and being good sheep they received it as it was, a word from God. This is a formula for change. The whole service was refreshing to me and my wife who live life in an intense environment, i.e. Los Angeles. San Diego has always been a place of "R & R" for us. We took a ferry ride around the harbor passing right beneath the Midway aircraft carrier. It was a beautiful day. Well, I digress.
     Oh yes, the point I was making was the depth of theology in God's people.  The sheep Sunday morning understood a very basic theological principle, exposing ones heart to the logos, the word, Christ, the Big Bambino, causes change. We are changed by beholding Him.  In this respect we are all theologians. Every person who thinks about God in some part is doing theology. In fact every Christian is a theologian, good or bad. According to Stanley Grenz "Every Christian is a theologian. Whether consciously or unconsciously, each person of faith embraces a belief system. And each believer, whether in a deliberate manner or merely implicitly, reflects on the content of these beliefs and their significance for Christian life."
    Well, I would like to think that every Christian has at some point consciously thought about his/her faith. I know those congregants last Sunday were way into thinking about their faith. In fact I would venture to say that the flock of CHK, has been trained to think about their walk with God. They examined their lives and looked for areas that needed change. Change is not easy. "Reflecting on the content of their beliefs" requires an openness to God who does not change (Mal.3:6a), but demands that we evolve into His image. Paul fortunately gives us the avenue for this transformation in 2 Corinthians 3:18. "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (KJV). The Greek word for changed, or transformed (NIV) is metamorfow, That is right, metamorphosis. Like the butterfly we go from a worm to a beautiful butterfly. The worm has no idea that he will fly, much less be so delicate and drink the nector of beautiful flowers. What a change that is! To go from squirming around in the dirt and making little girls scream, to flying in the air and having people marvel at your beauty, is mind boggling. Only God could do something like that. Really the study of science, life, physical, or theoretical is a practical theology course. It depends simply on your orientation to life. 
     The worm never studied science so he has no idea what he is changing into. Do we? "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him"(1 Cor. 2:9). Our ideas about who we are going to be can block what God is doing for us and in us. I bet the worm was glad he wasn't asked his opinion about what God was doing. Little did he know. And little do we know. But that is good. All we have to do is open our hearts in faith to the Lord, beholding Him and metamorphosis happens! John  Stevens in His revolutionary sermon called The Course of Change, said this, "How can you accelerate the process of becoming identical with Him? How can you absorb His nature? Efforts to discipline yourself to pray and read the Bible a certain amount every day are good, but they can easily become only a legalistic bondage. It is not how much you read the Word or listen to messages that determines your growth; it is how much you see and partake of Christ in it, how much you are truly exposed to Christ in it." That is the way of change. Exposing yourself to Christ, in the word, in prayer, in your brother and sister of faith, in our own hearts, this is how we transform ourselves. This is the end result of good theology. As Paul the great eccesliastical architech and theologian put it so simply, "That I might know him and the power (dynamite) of his resurrection..." (Phil.3:10).