Saturday, February 27, 2016

Lent (#3): God's Kingdom Doesn't Come by Force and Military Victory

I've chosen this week to quote from the Thursday reading of Week 2 in N.T. Wright's Lent for Everyone - Matthew.

Using the passages in Matthew 12 where Jesus quotes from Isaiah 42, Wright says the following about the nature of God's kingdom as Jesus demonstrated it to be:

"The point he (Jesus) is making is that of a different kind of kingdom, an alternative model of kingship...Matthew is keen to point out here that Jesus is redefining what God's kingdom looks like, and hence what being God's Messiah might actually mean.

"In fact, of course, what he says here is exactly in line with the Sermon on the Mount. The meek will inherit the earth, and Jesus is leading the way. God's kingdom belongs to the humble, and Jesus is showing how it's done. The kingdom of heaven belongs to those who suffer, are persecuted, and even killed, because they are following God's way...and Jesus will go ahead of them in that, too. Matthew, by quoting the passage here, is pointing forwards all the way to the climax of his gospel, when Jesus will be 'enthroned' as 'king of the Jews' by being nailed to the cross.

"There is to be sure, great comfort for us in all of this. If God's kingdom came the same way that earthly kingdoms come, by force of arms and military victory, the weak and the vulnerable would once more come off worst. But God does things the other way up, and we should all be thankful for that. In particular, those of us who struggle from time to time in our faith and discipleship should take heart in Isaiah's words, applied here to Jesus: he will not break a bruised reed, or quench a smouldering wick. His task and his delight is to gently fan into flames what was smouldering, gently to strengthen and firm up the weak bruised faith, hope and love that we have at the moment.

"Humble Lord Jesus, as you reach out to us in your gentle love, help us find the way to bring your kingdom in our day."

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Lent (#2): Prayer is About Heaven and Earth Overlapping in Time and Space

In this second of a series of blog posts from NT Wright's book, Lent for Everyone - Matthew, I've chosen to quote a portion from "Week 1: Tuesday" about the Lord's Prayer. (See here for part 1 of this series.)

In his book, Wright is presenting thoughts for Lent from the book of Matthew, giving focus on the kingdom of heaven. In that context he says the following about prayer from Jesus' words in Matt. 6:

"At the very heart of Jesus' vision of the kingdom - of heaven's kingdom coming on earth - we have a picture of one person, secretly in their own room, praying.

"Prayer is a mystery. I've often heard people saying...'It doesn't go beyond the ceiling, you know.' But the point of prayer...is that it doesn't have to. Your father, he says, is there in the secret place with you. He sees and knows your deepest thoughts and hopes and fears. He hears the words you say. He hears too the things you can't put into words but want to lay before him anyway...Prayer is a symptom, a sign, of the mystery: the fact that heaven and earth actually mingle together. There are times when they interlock; there are places where they overlap. To pray, in this sense, is to claim a time and place - it can be anywhere, any time - as one of those times, one of those places.

"If prayer is about heaven and earth overlapping in time and space, it's also about them coming together in matter, in the stuff of this world, the clay from which we are made. To pray, in this sense, is to claim - think about it and realize just how daring this is! - that the living God, enthroned in heaven, can make his home with you, within you...

"But, when you do (pray), realize one more thing. If prayer is about heaven and earth coming together at one time, in one place, within the lump of clay we call 'me', then it's going to change this person called 'me'. In particular, it's going to make me a forgiver...All of us have been hurt, wounded, slighted, annoyed by other people. How much more have we ourselves done that to God! Yet we want him to be with us, to hear us, and - yes! - to forgive us. How can we not be forgivers too?..."

Lord, teach us to pray; teach us to forgive; make us your people. Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory."

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Lent: Jesus' Path to Lordship is Unlike the Path of Earthly Lords

In the next weeks of the season we have come to call "Lent", I plan to share some key quotes from N.T. Wright's book, Lent for Everyone - Matthew - Year A. This is part of a series of books he's written that goes through the gospels during the Lenten season. In the first book, Matthew is the featured gospel and each day during Lent the author includes commentary and a short prayer. NT Wright gives focus to the kingdom of heaven and the King as he goes through Matthew. The following are his observations concerning the King's temptation in the wilderness and why it mattered for Him and for us as it relates to how God is establishing His rule on earth:

(Matthew 4:1-11) "...his temptations are not just an example, showing us how to resist, though of course they are that too...They are part of a larger story of how 'heaven's rule' came to earth.

"Part of the point of the 'kingdom of heaven', you see, and of Jesus' own mission to make it happen, is that there was another power ruling the earth. If Jesus was to bring God's rescuing rule to the world, the present power had to be defeated. Jesus' 'temptations' are therefore the personal side of the larger battle he had to fight if God's rule was to take hold...

"...it's clear throughout Matthew's gospel, and particularly at the very end, that Jesus 'as king of the Jews' is to become the true lord of the whole world. But the path by which he moves to that lordship is not the satanic one which would make him grab it for his own ends. The whole of the book is about the alternative path, the true way by which Jesus comes to embody heaven's rule on earth.

"...We too are tempted to do the right things in the wrong way, or for the wrong reason. Part of the discipline of Lent is about learning to recognize the flickering impulses, the whispering voices, for what they are, and to have the scripture-fueled courage to resist. We too are part of the on-going battle for heaven's rule to be established on earth."

"Lord Jesus, as you saw through the temptations and refused them, give us wisdom to recognize the tempter's voice, and strength to resist."

Sunday, February 07, 2016

Fear, Insecurity, Rivalry and the Love of God

In the lifelong process of being transformed into the likeness of Jesus, our way of seeing changes dramatically. Because we are born mortal, we are born afraid of death; and because we are afraid of death, we have a natural affinity with the world system that thrives on competition and rivalry. We believe that our survival depends on how well we can prove our value over and above the next guy.

This mindset, which is so deeply embedded in us that we can't see it unless God's Spirit helps us, causes us to see life through the eyes of insecurity. We must somehow put others down in order to feel good about ourselves and in order for us to be compared favorably over the competition. We're caught in a rivalrous system that reinforces our fallen predisposition towards fear. This system pits individuals against individuals, churches against churches, political parties against political parties, races against races, nations against nations.

But as the Spirit of God does His loving and ongoing work of driving out fear through love and therein making us increasingly like Jesus in the way we see others, we begin to be able to look beyond the outward obvious defects that are part of being human to see the hidden and unobtrusive good qualities that are also part of being human. Paul Billheimer says the following in his book Love Covers:

"We see the evil in our fellows much sooner than the good. On a very short acquaintance with persons, we discover their defects and the things in them which are disagreeable to us, and soon find the weak point in them...but their better nature is more slowly unfolding itself. The invisible character of goodness is not so obtrusive as defects, because there is an instinctive bashfulness in real goodness, even without a man's intending it. When we know people a long while, especially if we love them, there is apt to be the continual breaking forth of virtues in them we never dreamed they possessed; and oftentimes in little things, in the ordinary wear and tear of life, there will come forth in unostentatious ways traits of humility and self-depreciation, or a patience and sweetness and unselfishness beyond what we expect of them..."

In order for us to more readily see beyond the obvious flaws in others as Jesus does, we must be secure in God's love; we become more secure in His love by freely receiving His love. The apostle John sums it up by saying that we love because He loved us first (I John 4:19).


                                                                                   

Thoughts for Lent (9) - On Changing Our Minds

In this reading from Walter Brueggemann's  A Way Other Than Our Own , the author issues an invitation to us as the final week of Lent be...