Planted in the Stream

Passage: Jeremiah 17:5-7

Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
    and makes flesh his strength,
    whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
    and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
    in an uninhabited salt land.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
    whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
    that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
    for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
    for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

One of the themes repeated throughout the New Testament is new life through Jesus Christ.  Paul writes about this in detail in Romans 6-8, where he contrasts in vivid terms what he calls “life in the flesh” versus “life in the Spirit”.  According to Jesus himself, and the authors of the New Testament, the Holy Spirit doesn’t just awaken our hearts to faith in Jesus.  He actually inhabits our hearts, transforms us from the inside out, and becomes an alternative life source.  Our biological life is sustained imperfectly and finitely by food, water, and other physical necessities.  Eventually our biological life runs its course and we die.  Jesus offers a new source of life that truly satisfies and never runs out.  He uses metaphors like “living water” (John 4) and being grafted in to the “true vine” (John 15) to describe our new, inextinguishable life in him. 

When we systematically study the Old Testament, we discover that this theme isn’t unique to the New Testament.  Throughout the Scriptures God repeats this message: True life is found in me; life without me is death.  Through Jeremiah God reiterates the teaching of Psalm 1: that people rooted in God flourish, grow, and never perish.  The illustration in both passages is that of a tree planted next to a stream.  In the arid world of the Middle East, there are forms of vegetation that spring up quickly when moisture presents itself in the form of precipitation.  These forms of vegetation flourish – as long as it keeps raining.  As soon as the rain stops, they dry up and blow away as quickly as they appeared.  A tree planted by a stream or river derives its life-sustaining moisture from a constant source.  Its life is therefore not dependent on rain, which comes and goes. 

According to this persistent, biblical metaphor, our natural tendency is to seek sustenance from inconstant sources of life: money; professional achievement; the affirmation of employers, clients, fans, and facebook friends; sex and romance.  We strive to sustain our lives by our own hard work, popularity, or moral righteousness.  Jeremiah calls this “trusting in man and making your flesh your strength.”  God invites us to make him our strength, and to be sustained not by our flesh, but by his Holy Spirit.  We do this by entrusting the course of our lives to God’s guidance; submitting to the teaching and principles of Jesus Christ regardless of the cost; and resorting to prayer rather than relentless strategizing when we are stressed or troubled.  God tells us repeatedly: Don’t depend on the rain of fleeting resources and changing circumstances for your sustenance.  Instead be rooted in the limitless flow of my Spirit, and find your security and strength in me. I will never let you down.  

God's Inheritance

Passage: Psalm 50; Ephesians 1

What do you get the person who has everything?  If you have a wealthy friend or family member, this is a dilemma you face every Christmas and birthday.  If that wealthy friend or family member is insecure and capricious, the dilemma becomes a game.  The gift becomes an emblem of your love and loyalty, and every special event becomes a pass/fail proposition. 

Throughout history people have thought of the gods as insecure and capricious.  Relating to the divine has been a pass/fail proposition, as human beings have tried to figure out what offering or sacrifice might win the favor of those who have everything.  The one true God constantly encounters people who are enslaved to this way of thinking.  People who believe that God is insecure and capricious, and demands sacrifice and offering as a way of appeasing his wrath; boosting his ego; earning his love.  What the one true God communicates again and again is that he doesn’t need anything from us.  In Psalm 50 God tells his people,

I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

We can’t offer God anything that isn’t already his. 

So what does God want?

In Ephesians 1, Paul refers repeatedly to “God’s inheritance.”  Paul is clearly talking about the gifts and blessings God offers us.  Through Jesus Christ, Paul says, God has claimed us as children and full heirs of the riches of heaven.  The inheritance comes in installments.  We get to enjoy some of it now, via the Holy Spirit, who assures us of God’s love and begins to make us new.  We’ll experience it fully when Jesus comes back.  God’s inheritance is God’s gift to us.

And yet God’s inheritance is also something God receives.  Paradoxically it’s an inheritance that flows two ways.  But what could God possibly be waiting to receive?  What do you give the one who has everything?  The one thing no one else can give.  Yourself.  Mother’s Day is coming up. This week countless kids will go shopping with their parents’ cash or credit cards.  They’ll give their moms gifts their moms have essentially paid for themselves.  And yet countless moms will be deeply moved and gratified by these gifts.  Why?  Because the gifts are symbolic of what the parent wants most: the love of their child.  Symbolic of the reality that this child, who has occupied the deepest part of your heart since their birth, has a place in their heart for you, too. 

God owns everything.  He owns you.  He owns the money you donate and the time you volunteer.  God doesn’t need that stuff.  But God can’t take your love.  He can’t own it unless you give it to him.  God has given himself in love to all humanity.  What God awaits is the moment we reciprocate.  Do not doubt that God loves you.  He knew you before you were born and reached out to you in love even then.  He poured out his life for you; and continues to pour his life into you.  The question is whether you will love God back.  The love God has shown you until now is a deposit on an incomparable inheritance.  Your love is the inheritance God is waiting for.  

Fear and Salvation

Passage: Numbers 13

The Lord said to Moses, “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”

This is how Numbers 13 begins.  After rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, God has led them on a circuitous journey through a barren wilderness.  The only thing keeping them going is that they’re on their way home.  Their journey will end in the lush and fertile land where they can start living the dream.  In Numbers 13 the Israelites have reached the border of their promised paradise.  God tells Moses to organize a reconnaissance mission – “Send some men to explore the land I’m giving the Israelites.”

Moses does so.  We’re given a list of names.  You may have skimmed over the list – after all, the only way you get through Numbers is skimming over the seemingly endless lists of items and names.  It’s as though the author knew you were going to do this.  Because he adds, parenthetically, at the end of the list, “(Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)”

Why is this important?  First, because this Hoshea is the Joshua who becomes Moses’ successor.  The leader who ultimately brings the Israelites into the Promised Land. 

But second, because Joshua’s names are a sermon in themselves.  His given name – Hoshea – means “salvation”, or “he saves”.  This is the name of one of Israel’s great prophets who,  more than 500 years after the Exodus, declares that his fallen people’s only hope is the love of a God who has never given up on them.  Joshua means, “The Lord saves”; as God’s appointed leader Joshua becomes an emblem of the God who relentlessly delivers exactly what he has promised: freedom from slavery; a life of abundance; rescue from death itself. 

Joshua is only one of two spies who, when the rest of the spies and the entirety of Israel give up for fear of “giants in the land”, insists, “The LORD is with us.  Do not be afraid!”  Later, God repeats this word when he commissions Joshua as leader:

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)

The Israelites despair because they do exactly what you and I do every time we encounter trouble.  They look at their circumstances.  They look at their resources.  And they recognize – accurately – that they don’t have what it takes to overcome.  Why does God rename Joshua?  Because it’s not Joshua who saves.  It’s not the people who save themselves.  It’s not you and I who somehow find in ourselves the strength to overcome.  It’s the Lord who saves.

The names Hoshea and Joshua reverberate throughout the story of God’s people.  And finally we hear echoes of the same name as the story of the Israelites reaches its fulfillment.  Through the prophet Hosea God says,

How can I give you up…How can I hand you over, Israel? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man-- the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath. (Hosea 11:9-10)

God comes to his people not in a firestorm of judgment, but in person.  In a person known as Yeshua – “The LORD saves”.  Jesus, who bears the brunt of God’s wrath so that all we experience is God’s love.  Jesus, who is “God with us” – the guarantee of God’s eternal presence and acceptance.  Jesus, the embodiment of God’s constant word to his people: Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.  Jesus, who saves us from all that we fear.   

Hungry and Full of Praise

Passage: Proverbs 27:7,20-21

One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet.

Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man.
The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and a man is tested by his praise.

I have a friend who is a professor of literature.  He recently mentioned he was preparing a lecture series comparing the characters of Job and King Lear.  Never needing to be asked for my opinion, I enthused about the Book of Job.  Many Bible-believers are simply confounded by Job; non-religious people – even those who appreciate the book’s artistic merits – are offended by the God it presents.  I argue that in fact Job is the key to understanding not only the Bible, but the Christian faith.

Here’s why: the Book of Job is a response to the charge that God is not intrinsically worthy of praise.  The book opens with a confrontation between God and Satan (or ha’satan, “the accuser”) in which Satan alleges that the only reason for Job’s devout worship is the nice things God has given him.  “Take away all his stuff,” says Satan, “and Job will curse you to your face.”  The wager between God and Satan isn’t a wager about Job’s righteousness.  It’s about God’s praiseworthiness.  What the book maintains is that God deserves human praise regardless of what’s going on in human life.  Job’s righteousness is his simple insistence: no matter the evidence in my own life, God is God; and God is good. 

The Book of Job is classified, along with Ecclesiastes, Psalms and Proverbs, as the “Wisdom Literature” of the Bible.  Proverbs, which seems practical rather than theological, nonetheless upholds the lesson at the heart of Job – namely, that the good life revolves around God rather than goods.  The verses above highlight the fact that a life built on goods – possessions, property and pleasure – is not only unsustainable; it’s ultimately unsatisfying.  The three verses seem at first only loosely related.  In fact they build on one another.  The first verse establishes a truth that is plainly visible in our experience: those who have a chronic overabundance of anything – food, sex, stuff – experience decreasing enjoyment of anything.  This leads in turn to the obsessive pursuit and acquisition of more, the subject of the second verse, which also identifies insatiability as a natural tendency of fallen humanity.  

But what of the third verse?  The true test of a person is the consistency and quality of their praise.  What happens to your capacity to praise God when you have been deprived of something you want or need?  Do you praise God only when you have more than enough?  Or can you, like Job, declare at any time, “God is God, and God is good?”  True faith looks for the gift and grace of God in any circumstance.  And true faith maintains that God and God’s actions are always praiseworthy.  

Noah, and Why We Don't Get our Theology from Popular Culture

I’m looking at a pamphlet entitled “Worldly Amusements in the Light of the Scripture: Theatre Going, Dancing, Card Playing, Etc.”  It was published for the annual Synod of my denomination (the Christian Reformed Church in North America) in 1928, and presents a case against Christians engaging in any kind of popular culture or entertainment.  Anticipating a possible “baby-with-the-bathwater” rebuttal, the authors argue the following regarding plays and movies:

“…some of the so-called good plays are more dangerous than the bad, because of the false conceptions of religion and morality which they set forth.  [Also], by attending the theater occasionally one incurs the risk of developing a taste for theater-going.  The whetted appetite will cry for More! More!  Who knows how many inveterate theater-goers have started in their sinful course by viewing the occasional good play!  We believe that the safest course is the way of total abstinence.” 

This was the default position regarding film and television in many corners of the CRCNA as late as the 1970s.  What turned the tide for many households was television broadcasts of Sunday afternoon football and the release of films that were explicitly biblical or evangelistic.  Since then the CRCNA has adopted a far more affirmative stance regarding Christian engagement in culture and the arts, recognizing the redemptive potential in them along with many other human endeavors and disciplines. 

That said, there continues to be healthy debate about how cautious, discerning, and discriminating Christians should be in both their consumption of popular culture and their production thereof.  One of the captions in the aforementioned pamphlet provides a guiding principle we are well-advised to revisit: “Even when our amusements are not spiritually and morally harmful, they should not be allowed to occupy more than a secondary, subordinate place in our life.”  We go the way of our culture when the primary informative voice in our lives is popular culture; when news media, television and film comprise more of our diet than the Bible and the faith formation of the church.  This should go without saying.  But it is neither a foregone conclusion nor guiding principal for many self-professed Christians. 

And it becomes problematic when we encounter any cultural form that makes a statement about God.  There’s an easy way to evaluate the god-statements of popular authors and filmmakers.  You compare them with what God says about himself in the Bible.  You can’t do that if you aren’t familiar with the Bible – not a short list of your favorite verses, but the whole thing, the entire chronicle of God’s redemptive action throughout human history.  It has always been human instinct to create our own versions of God.  Because of this, we either avoid the Bible entirely, or read it very selectively.  We want to cut and paste the parts that present God in our image.  To some extent we all do this – even the most orthodox and well-read preachers and theologians.  No one person’s interpretation of God and God’s word is wholly reliable.  Which is why it is dangerous to base one’s theology solely on the books of Rob Bell, CS Lewis, Joel Osteen or NT Wright; or the TV shows of Mark Burnett; or the films of Darren Aronofsky.  None is God’s word; and each is processed through the fallible filter of one person’s experience. 

So when am I going to get to Noah?  I’m not.  At least not personally.  A lot of Christians have condemned the movie (some without having seen it).  Some have seen fit to defend it.  Of all the reviews I've read, the following, in three parts, has been the most helpful.  The author is Seventh-Day Adventist, so his theology on certain issues diverges from mine; however, his evaluation of the film is thorough.  In addition, his conclusions about the film's theology, and what it says about the church's responsibility in shaping our culture's understanding about God, is invaluable.  If you've seen the movie or plan to do so, take the time to read all three parts of this review.  

Noah,Part 1

Noah,Part 2

Noah,Part 3

Peter, Judas, You and Me

Passage:Luke 22:1-34

The question in our Bible study guide read, “What are the similarities and differences between Peter and Judas?”  At first we thought, Similarities?  The two are nothing alike!  But as we talked we came to realize that Peter and Judas are more alike than different.  Both disciples abandon Jesus when circumstances are at their worst.  Both deny any affiliation with the man who has been their faithful teacher and friend for three years.  Both give up hope that Jesus is the Messiah about whom they’d been so certain.  The only real difference between Judas’ and Peter’s betrayals is that Judas is more honest about his.  Judas sees the end coming and hedges his bets.  Peter is so self-deluded that he believes himself to be a committed follower right up until the moment he’s not. 

The real question should be, “Why is Peter redeemed while Judas is lost?”  There isn’t a clear Sunday school right answer.  The restorative grace of Jesus is unpredictable.  What we do know is this: when it became clear that Jesus was not the kind of Messiah who would storm the capital and claim political and economic ascendancy for his people, Judas found an alternative.  He’d always had a thing for money.  So he replaced Jesus with cold, hard cash.  He would go it alone.  Peter made no such side-bets.  He did deny Jesus.  But he had nothing with which to fill the void Jesus left.  When Jesus arose, Judas was already dead.  He discovered his money couldn’t save him; he had nowhere else to turn.  He wasted no time in ending it all. 

Peter, though despairing and empty, was ready when Jesus came looking for him.  Nothing else had taken up residence in Peter’s heart, so it was there waiting for Jesus to move back in.  

Every human being lives on the fulcrum between hope and despair.  The evidence for both is always in flux.  Faith in Jesus Christ provides a basis for hope that isn’t quite as shifty as the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  But it rarely feels as cold and hard as whatever temporary comfort we can lay our hands on.  The challenge of the life of faith is not to live without doubt.  But during those moments of doubt to resist the urge to reach for some substitute.  To push through the doubt and despair trusting that they are, as Paul puts it, “light and momentary troubles”.  None of us is immune to the denials of Peter or Judas.  But our redemption comes as we endure the dark night and hold out for the dawn of resurrection.  Even if your heart feels empty with despair, don’t fill it with an inadequate substitute.  Your Savior lives. 

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

Stand Firm

Passage: Luke 21:5-31

Westboro Baptist Church has been all over the news this week following the death of its incendiary founder, Fred Phelps.  Most of the news has focused on Phelps’ legacy of hate- and bigotry-laced religious rants and protests.  But an interesting and somewhat overlooked aspect of Phelps’ theology was his conviction that no member of his congregation would die.  He stated publicly that Jesus would return in his lifetime.  In a recent interview his son admitted that Phelps’ death could spark a crisis of faith for some of his followers.

The topic of the end of the world, and Christ’s return, has been a source of debate since the very beginning of the Christian movement.  Jesus’ disciples anticipated his return within their lifetimes based on what Jesus says in Luke 21. 

Luke 21 records Jesus’ extended statement about some of the things his disciples could expect before his return.  Specifically Jesus points to Herod’s temple in Jerusalem – an astonishing feat of architecture, some of whose stones were as big as a city bus – and declares that not one of its stones will be left on another.  This seemingly immovable emblem of human ability and presumed symbol of God’s presence was going to fall.  Jesus predicts “wars and rumors of wars… great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.”  He also adds, for his disciples’ benefit:

 But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name.

Life, says Jesus, is going to get worse before it gets better.  How did the disciples keep going, not knowing if or when they would be reunited with their friend and Savior?

They were sustained by the other things Jesus says in this passage.  As the disciples anticipate being brought before hostile courts and crowds of persecutors, Jesus tells them:

…make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.

Jesus continues:

But not a hair of your head will perish.  Stand firm, and you will win life.

We know for a fact that most of Jesus’ disciples were martyred.  How could Jesus’ words be true? 

Jesus was talking about his disciples’ new life.  The life they would receive through Jesus’ resurrection and the gift of his Spirit.  Following the torture and crucifixion that took Jesus’ life and marred his body past the point of recognition, Jesus returned to them.  He was the same Jesus; but he had a new body.  His disciples came to understand that this was the “firstfruits of those who had fallen asleep” – that the resurrection of Jesus is a preview of the new life that awaits everyone who belongs to him. 

Jesus could, with complete conviction and integrity, promise his disciples the preservation of their lives because he knew what awaited him, and them.  He knew that his death was a necessary precursor to his resurrection.  And a necessary condition of the resurrection life he offers all those who are in him.

One of the components of the prayer Jesus taught is “Your kingdom come…”  We pray it without taking into account all the things Jesus teaches about what must precede the arrival of his Kingdom.  Temples must be destroyed.  Cities brought low.  Empires fall.  Those of us who profess his name will do so under duress.  Our own earthly lives must come to an end.

We do well to take in his promises.  First, that Jesus himself will journey with us and give us everything we need to remain faithful.  We need not fear that, when push comes to shove, we might let him go.  Because he will not let us go.  He will never let you go.

Second, that in a very real way not a hair can fall from the head of your resurrection body.  As Paul puts it in Colossians 3, “(Your) life is hidden with Christ in God.”  The resurrection life that Jesus offers each of us is untouchable, and awaits us as surely as we await his inevitable return.  Stand firm.