To Dare to Keep Moving Forward is to Dare to Ask Questions...

One of the great problems of organized religion is that it traps us into forms and mindsets that no longer serve God's purposes. This is true of the most vibrant movements in the church. The setting up of organizations to facilitate the fresh work of God begins the downward move towards dependence on systems to run and control things. This is hard to avoid, but the biggest danger of it is that we are generally unaware of what is happening and give ourselves completely to what we have established. This then tends to set in concrete something that is meant to remain dynamic and ready to change in any given moment as new generations come along. Even when a new generation comes along with vision to bring positive change, they encounter a system that has hardened and unable to change in any significant way.

One example of this is the charismatic movement that burst on the scenes in the '60s. I was in on the beginnings of that movement when it was fresh and vibrant. Today, although much of the language has remained the same, it has gone the way of all movements and is stuck in its own traps.

There are always 'prophets' who are alert to this hardening and address it in a variety of ways. That is true today as it has been throughout history. I'm not referring to people who are labeled prophets or to people who may have 'prophetic ministry' but to those who are awake to this reality and are calling God's people to new ways of seeing and understanding God and others. There is a great wealth of writing that is going on now that is challenging the status quo of the Christian world. Among them are people like Albert Nolan, Brian McLaren, Sharon Baker, Renee Girard, Walter Wink, Walter Brueggeman, Phyllis Tickle...and many more. These are not stereotypical prophets but are scholars and pastors and leaders calling for God's people to look at God through a different set of eyeglasses and realize that God is constantly moving forward and moving us with Him. If you read the Bible through the lens of a trajectory, you begin to realize that God has had His people on a trajectory that has continued to this day.

To dare to keep moving on that trajectory is to dare to ask questions and to sort through what we have inherited.

One well-known man in more recent Christian history, Watchman Nee, understood this concept and wrote the following:

"...We cannot overestimate the greatness of our heritage, nor can we be sufficiently grateful to God for it. But if today you try to be a Luther or a Wesley, you will miss your destiny. You will fall short of the purpose of God for this generation, for you will be moving backwards while the tide of the Spirit is flowing on. The whole trend of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is a forward trend.

"God's acts are ever new. To hold on to the past, wanting God to move as He has formerly done, is to risk finding yourself out of the main stream of His goings. The flow of divine activity sweeps on from generation to generation, and in our own it is still uninterrupted, still steadily progressive."

Unlearning and Relearning in Order to Keep Learning

We often hear about the importance of being lifelong learners; a necessary ingredient for lifelong learning is being lifelong "unlearners" and "relearners" as well.

Alvin Toffler says, 
"The illiterate of the future are not those that cannot read or write. They are those that cannot learn, unlearn, relearn." 

In order to continue learning and growing, some things have to be unlearned and relearned in a new paradigm. 

In the approaching new year may we, God's people, experience His grace to "unlearn" and "relearn" in order to continue being renewed in our mind concerning who He is and how He thinks and feels and operates. 

Happy New Year! 

Great Things or Great Love?

In conversation with a friend this week about the things that life is made up of that really count, I was reminded of something that Mother Teresa said:

"We do no great things; we do small things with great love."

Be blessed and know that it's the very little things that are done in love that count most in our journey of living our lives the way Jesus lived His.

No-Strings-Attached Giving and Receiving

Recently as I was thinking about our response to God's unconditional love when it came to us in Christ Jesus, I realized that we fallen humans don't really want to be loved unconditionally. Our response was that of rejection and finally crucifixion.

On the one hand, we crave to be loved and yet something in us hates to be loved with no strings attached. I have a Korean friend who is over-the-top generous towards me. She lives in another state, and I see her once or twice a year; it never fails that, for no reason at all, she sends me back home laden with goodies! One time when I was with her, she insisted that we visit a Korean grocery store and she took me down all of the aisles and pulled off the shelves 2 or 3 of each item that she was sure I needed or wanted and filled up the grocery cart.

The whole time that she was doing this, I was thinking about frugality and how much she was spending and racking my brain to know how I could "pay her back" for this generosity. It made me very uncomfortable!

Later as I was complaining in my heart about all of this, the Lord spoke to me something to this effect: "Nita, I want to show you extravagant, no-strings-attached love through her undeserved generosity towards you. Receive it with thanks...and then you do the same towards others." I'm slowly getting it but I'm not yet there, because each time I see her and she loads me up with good things, I cringe a little inside; I want to deserve the gifts or have some way to pay her back! It's very humbling to receive with no way of paying back.

So deeply ingrained in us is the idea of pay-back or "evening the scales" that we, the human race, couldn't tolerate perfect unadulterated love when it showed up in Jesus. In this season now of gift-giving and receiving, it's not easy to receive a gift from someone that you didn't give to; even if the giver had no strings attached to the gift, our inner drive is often to feel like they expect something back or that we should give something back. This may be a good time to pause and remember the extravagant, no-strings-attached Love of God in Jesus and by His grace, humbly and gratefully receive the gift...and then give to others in the same way.

Next Book: Telling God's Story...

I'm reading a wonderful book by Peter Enns about how to teach the Bible to children. Because I'm concerned with how I was raised to think about the Bible (see introductory post on The Bible Made Impossible - http://nitasbookclub.blogspot.com/2011/12/increase-of-truth-looks-like-error.html), I have a strong desire to see children raised now with a better idea of what the purpose of the Scripture is and thereby later in life find the Bible able to stand under scrutiny rather than to find it a stumbling block when doubts about it arise.  (Statistics show that young adults are leaving the faith in huge numbers now, and one reason for that is their sincere questions and doubts about what the Bible is presented to be by their parents and Bible teachers.)

I also have great respect for Peter Enns whose writings have had significant influence on me in the very recent years, particularly as they relate to what God's intentions were in giving us His Word.

For these reasons I'd like to go through his book, Telling God's Story, a Parents' Guide to Teaching the Bible.  It's available at amazon.com:  http://www.amazon.com/Telling-Gods-Story-Parents-Teaching/dp/1933339462/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354116103&sr=8-1&keywords=telling+god%27s+story

My prayer is that those who are raising and/or teaching children would find this book a blessing and encouragement.

(I hope to begin this early in 2013.)

The Superiority of Jesus

I'm listening again to the wonderful book of Hebrews and so will repost what I wrote a couple of years ago in line with this:

I want to share a thought about the big message of the book of Hebrews - the superiority of Jesus to the Old Testament rituals and systems and practices, He being the fulfillment of them all.

As I went through this book several times recently, I was struck as never before with how those human systems and practices were done away with in His coming in the flesh. In fact, without the removal of the human systems, Jesus' beauty was obscured.

With this in mind, I saw the well-known chapter of Hebrews 11 on faith in fresh light; a couple of simple things stood out to me about faith:
1. With the removal of external props in worship, the true believer is forced into a life of faith at many levels.
2. Faith thrives and grows in the absence of external props because there is nothing left to lean on but the Person of Jesus.

Knowing our proneness as fallen humans, I wonder what systems and practices we modern evangelicals have that hinder a life of true faith? Holy Spirit, we need Your help to be able to see, and we pray that You will magnify Jesus and remove whatever You need to remove in order for us to see Him as He is and to grow in faith. Thank You for hearing and answering!

Backlog...

Just a quick message to say that last week those of you who were signed up to receive my postings by email may have received an email with a long list of postings on it. That was a backlog of all the postings I've done since the system quit sending out emails (for an unknown reason to me). Because I'm not techology-savvy, I couldn't figure out how to correct that (though I tried!).

I don't understand how this works and I guess I chalk it up to a quirk in the blogger system. It's possible that now the email piece of it will start working...we'll see!

Blessings and peace to you today!

You Don't HAVE to Pray!

When God came to earth in Christ Jesus, He gave us new wine: Himself unveiled! And in order to rightly mediate this new wine, there had to be a new wineskin. Jesus addresses this in Mark 2:18-22 when speaking about fasting; I believe, however, that this truth can probably apply to all that has to do with the gospel, including prayer.

The purpose of the wineskin is to contain the wine in order to experience it; in other words, it “mediates” the wine. If Jesus is the new wine, then there must be a new wineskin in order to experience Him. The old wineskin cannot mediate His life adequately.

The apostle John makes a startling statement in John 1:17 “The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Until Jesus came, what humans knew of God was mostly through the wineskin of the law. With the appearance of God in the flesh, the way we encounter Him now is through an entirely different medium or wineskin. Under the law, we experience God as Judge; under grace and truth, we experience God as Father.

When it comes to prayer (and other issues in God), the paradigm shift that has taken place through Jesus’ coming is that there is no law to pray. Part of the good news (gospel) is that you don’t have to pray! The old wineskin was about law/obligation/ requirement; the new wineskin is about voluntary acceptance of God’s loving invitation to participate with Him.

Apart from this new wineskin, we can’t experience Jesus rightly; He is too untamed to be contained (mediated) by the old wineskin of law.

So when it comes to prayer, if need be, ask the Lord for grace to see it through a new wineskin: grace and truth (God's gracious invitation to participate with Him).

Target Practice

Since my "retirement" the Lord has had me on an unexpected growth spurt in knowledge and understanding of God, resulting in major mindset shifts which have in turn resulted in much freedom and joy and love - unlike what I have ever experienced before in Him.

I've observed that there is something seductive about gaining knowledge when done independently of Jesus. In other words, it has the power to delude the learner into thinking he/she is superior to others. This, of course, was what the tree of knowledge in Eden was about - being god (superior) by knowing independently of God. Paul says in 1Corinthians 8:1 that knowledge "puffs up" while love "builds up."

Would to God we followers of Jesus would all be being renewed in our minds continually (which means shifts in mindsets), but my caution is that we make love our goal in all pursuit of knowledge, even in the pursuit of knowing God. I believe that aiming at love while growing in knowledge is what it means to live from the tree of life - Jesus.

In my walk now as I continue to grow in knowledge, I'm making the effort to consciously see myself in Christ Jesus, He being the One dispensing the knowledge, feeding me. There are times when I sense His quiet voice within me saying to stop my reading or studying; and I've learned that even though it may be wonderful and true material (and I really want to keep digging into it), if He is slowing me down, it's because He knows how much and how far I should go in that moment in order not to be led down the road of spiritual arrogance that would see others as inferior to me.

In I Corinthians 14:1 the apostle Paul says to aim at love, which could imply that we don't hit the mark perfectly every time; God doesn't ask us to be perfect marksmen but to make love our target; and the more we practice, the closer we will get at hitting it. Eating of the tree of life is about growing in love as we grow in knowledge - that is only possible in Jesus and under His leadership. The goal of all learning is to love - to receive the love of God and then to give that love away to others. If I'm not growing in love and tenderness towards others along with growing in knowledge, I may need more target practice!

Restructuring the Brain - Exercise #4

This will be the final post in this series on restructuring the brain. (See the introductory post:  http://nitasbookclub.blogspot.com/2012/10/restructuring-brain.html)

This time I'm sharing two very simple spiritual disciplines that can help us as we seek to cooperate with the Lord's transforming work in the renewing of our mind.

Imagining Solid Footing
This simple exercise is taken from a blog post by Kathy Escobar (see this link for complete post: http://kathyescobar.com/2012/09/21/formation-friday-security/). She writes:

"Psalm 40:1-3.

“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.

he lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;

he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

he put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.”

Often, as a spiritual practice, I try to put both feet on the ground, sit up straight, and take a few really deep breaths, noticing my feet on solid ground underneath me.  It helps turn my attention away from what feels like sinking sand underneath me and remember that I’m okay...that God’s with me...that my heart may be overwhelmed, but there’s a rock that’s higher than I underneath me (Psalm 61)."

Repeating Short Phrases

This is a practice that I recommend to my students to help focus the mind:

Pick a one-liner from Psalm 119, not more than 5-6 words long. The line that I have used for years now is from verse 94: "I am Yours; save me..." There are many, many such phrases in Psalm 119 or throughout the psalms. It should be short enough that you can say it in a breath.

Ask the Spirit to remind you (or ask a friend to remind you) to repeat your chosen phrase throughout the day from time to time. If you are taking some time for concentrated prayer and find your mind wandering around, then simply repeat your phrase over and over. Don't worry about whether you are concentrating on it. In time this will help you focus, but it does take a long time to create a new pathway in your brain so you need to be patient.

The saints of God have practiced these sorts of exercises throughout human history without the scientific understanding of their value to the brain. Seems that God may have known this all along! May His grace rest upon you as we work with Him in bringing the mind into alignment with Him and His life and truth.

 

Politics, Siblings, and the Kingdom of Love

I'm interrupting my series of posts for helping restructure the brain as part of the renewing of the mind, because I want to share some thoughts as we head into the 2012 election. I'm writing this without time to edit and polish or qualify, so I trust the reader to be generous-hearted and discern the spirit of what I'm writing even though it's poorly articulated. The topic of politics has many layers and dimensions to it; I'm addressing only one issue concerning it.

In American politics we have a two-party (mainly) system which over time has deteriorated into extreme polarization. What used to be relatively "conservative" and "liberal" thinking (each with its strengths and weaknesses) has become "right" and "wrong" in the minds of those strongly attached to one or the other party. If you lean Republican, the Republicans are "right" and the Democrats are "wrong"; if you lean Democrat, the Democrats are "right" and the Republicans are "wrong."

My point in this post is not to figure out how to extricate ourselves from this political quagmire, but to express the prayer and desire in my heart for myself and my American "siblings" (Jesus followers).

Fallen humans are hopelessly bent towards seeing everything through the lens of "right" and "wrong". We who are in Christ have been given an entirely different set of eyeglasses through which to look at and understand life. The former way of seeing is to operate out of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as our source; the latter way of seeing is to operate out of the tree of life as our source. To live and operate from the tree of life is to live in the transcendent place of love where life isn't measured according to right and wrong but according to the life of Christ Jesus where all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden (Col. 2:3).

I have three wonderful biological siblings for whom I am increasingly grateful with each passing year. Each one has proven him/herself to be a faithful and loyal follower of Jesus. And yet we don't all see American politics through the same lens for a variety of reasons. However, because we recognize that we are citizens of another country (God's kingdom) where self-giving love is the law of life, we relate primarily as such citizens, rather than as citizens of the US. In this way, love wins, and relationships stay strong.

In the same way, all of us who follow Jesus must learn to relate as "spiritual siblings", brothers and sisters of another nation, the kingdom of God. If a brother leans in a different way politically in this "foreign nation" where we live now, it's imperative that I remember where my true citizenship lies and love and respect my spiritual sibling as one who is just as desirous of the best as I am when it comes to worldly political positions. Or if he chooses not to engage in the political process at all, to accept that he is doing so with best intentions for society's well-being. As we approach this election, if we make the effort to actively embrace our spiritual siblings, no matter what their political convictions, and if we remember that our spiritual brothers and sisters all over the world (who don't think the same as we do politically) are more a part of us than those who may agree with our political persuasions in the US, then we will transcend the pettiness that draws us in when a particular political stance becomes too important to us; therein the world will know we are Jesus' disciples by our love for one another (John 13:35).

Self-giving love is the law of God's kingdom, and Jesus' call to His followers is to live now according to that law. So when political differences arise, even if I could win an argument, it doesn't mean that I should. Operating out of the life of Jesus means that self-giving love rules, not being "right". Or, if it's appropriate to make my point, it must be done in the way of love, which means that I don't respond in a way that crushes or belittles my brother or sister nor with a desire to prove that I'm "right." In the kingdom where God (who is Love) rules, preferring others is of more value than being "right." This is costly for us fallen ones who have eaten of the forbidden fruit of knowing right and wrong apart from Jesus and who consequently want desperately to be "right", but it is the life-giving way of the tree of life, the cross of Jesus. After all, this short journey in a foreign country is where we learn the way of the kingdom of love and become like the King.

Following are some practical things that may help us keep perspective as we enter this final week before the election:

1. Motivated by love, make the effort to not couch your position in spiritual-sounding language that implies that God is on one particular side so if your brother or sister is voting differently than you, they are "wrong" and against God. (There really are legitimate reasons why good and faithful followers of the Lamb are on both sides of the political divide and why some don't engage in it at all.)
2. Motivated by love, ask the Lord to help you remember to invest time and heart in praying for the candidates that you are not for, speaking and praying blessing over them (amazing how that begins to soften the heart towards the perceived "enemy").
3. Motivated by love, if you believe you should vote, pray as you vote, consciously acknowledging that your citizenship is in the kingdom of God and that your hope is in His rulership even in this upcoming election. In this way, your heart is guarded and protected from anger (if your candidates lose) or false hope (if your candidates win).

As for me, for relatively well-thought-out reasons and motivated by love (as best I can know my heart), I won't be voting; but many of my siblings in Christ will vote and will vote for opposing parties; I honor and love and thank God for you! Grace and peace to you in Christ Jesus!

Restructuring the Brain - Integration Exercise #3

Continuing the series on simple exercises to help restructure the brain, this is another suggested integration exercise (see explanation in the first of the series: http://nitasbookclub.blogspot.com/2012/10/restructuring-brain.html). As is the case with the other two exercises, this one comes from Dr. Curt Thompson's book, The Anatomy of the Soul.

Unlike the other two, this exercise requires the participation of others:

Autobiographical Narratives
"Consider gathering with a group of two or three trusted friends. Encourage each other to write your individual autobiographies, and then share them with each other. For this to be successful, you may need to meet together for sixty to ninety minutes weekly or biweekly over several weeks or months. There is no perfect formula. What is important is that you are in a group of committed folks who are willing to share their stories as they are. As you proceed, invite God to reveal to each of you not only more about your story, but more about his story - his feelings, thoughts, and images of his mind - as well.

"Pay attention to the nonverbal as well as verbal aspects of the stories that are being read. Participants also need to pay attention to what they feel - the emotions that are evoked within them as they hear each other's stories - and to honor those feelings, being careful never to ignore them but rather permitting these feelings to generate questions they might ask the storyteller.

"Use the five forms of interrogatories...: who, what, where, when, and how. Each question seeks information the listener does not know; more important, expressing them adds to a storyteller's experience of being known.

"When listening to another's story, asking these questions opens the door for the storyteller to reflect on particular facts without becoming emotionally activated by the more charged query of why. Both the storyteller and his or her listeners are able to create deeper bonds of intimacy in a predictable, trustworthy, and safe fashion."

Restructuring the Brain - Integration Exercise #2

We're continuing to look at some simple integration exercises to help restructure the brain. (See the first post in this short series: http://nitasbookclub.blogspot.com/2012/10/restructuring-brain.html) In this post I'm sharing a second suggested exercise taken from Dr. Curt Thompson's book:

Centering exercise

"One simple exercise that doubles as a helpful meditation practice is to choose one of the nouns listed as the outgrowth of a Spirit-filled life in Galatians 5:22 (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). Focus your attention on that word daily, throughout the day. Feel free to create images in your mind that represent that word.

"Dedicate seven consecutive days to focus on each word, continuing to cycle through all nine on an ongoing basis. Whenever you encounter another person or sense an emotional shift that tempts to take you down the low road, allow yourself to be immersed in your awareness of your word for the day. Be mindful how that word is calling you to reflect and manifest it in that moment - especially when your mind is screaming for you to do just the opposite. Ask yourself how you can be a conduit of joy, peace, patience, or gentleness in this moment. This exercise will not only facilitate the integration of your own prefrontal cortex, you will be doing the same for those around you..."

Restructuring the Brain - Integration Exercises #1

As I mentioned in my previous post (http://nitasbookclub.blogspot.com/), the restructuring of the brain is critical in the renewal of the mind. I am following up with a few posts to give some simple and practical exercises that help integrate and focus the brain in different ways. These exercises are taken from Curt Thompson's book, The Anatomy of the Soul, which I quoted from last week.

This suggested practice in this post is an "attention exercise" designed to train the brain to concentrate and focus:

"While sitting comfortably in a chair, take a deep breath and then allow the focus of your attention to find the center of the room (not the center of the floor or ceiling, but the center of the entire room's volume). Maintain this for about 30 seconds. Then, without interruption, allow the focus of your attention to shift to an area on the wall opposite where you are sitting; allow your attention to remain there for approximately 30 seconds. Next, again without interruption, allow the focus of your attention to return to the center of the room, holding it for 30 seconds. Then, without using your hands as a visual guide, allow the focus of your attention to shift to the space in front of you, the distance from you at which you would hold a book to read it, holding this space in your attentional frame for 30 seconds. Finally, allow the focus of your attention to return to the center of the room, holding it for 30 seconds."

Thompson encourages this to be practiced daily as often as one can do it. More frequent, shorter sessions during the week will do more for the prefrontal cortex interconnectedness than longer, less frequent sessions in a week.

"This demonstrates to my patients that they actually can control their attention, while illustrating how difficult it can be to create something and then focus on that same something in your mind. The 'center' of the room is an example of this and can be challenging at first. This exercise is a good beginning meditation practice..."

Restructuring the Brain (or the Renewing of the Mind)

In the book, The Anatomy of the Soul, Dr. Curt Thompson writes about the "surprising connections between neuroscience and spiritual practices that can transform your life and relationship."  (http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Soul-Connections-Neuroscience-Relationships/dp/141433415X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349964671&sr=8-1&keywords=anatomy+of+the+soul)
The studies of the human brain are bearing out the value of prayer and the spiritual disciplines that God's people have practiced for centuries.

In this post I will quote a portion of this book, then in the next few weeks I plan to share simple practices that he suggests to help restructure the brain, which is necessary for genuine transformation in our lives. It's what the scripture calls the "renewing of the mind."

In Chapter 9 ("The Prefrontal Cortex and the Mind of Christ") Thompson says the following, which is the conclusion of his look at Psalm 86:11 "Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.":

"Last, the psalmist reveals his understanding of the natural direction in which his petition leads: 'that I may fear your name.' In this context, the word fear does not refer to our brain stem's predominant reactivity to a threat, or our mindless fearful implicit memory. Instead, this refers to being overwhelmed with awe in the presence of God's power and beauty. This beauty is so deep that it would be painful were it not tempered by reliance 'on your faithfulness' to create eyes to see with 'an undivided heart.'

"The contemplative tradition suggests that to be so acutely aware of God's beauty in anything leads to awareness of God's beauty in everything, save that which is evil. Thus, we see God's beauty and presence in those people whom we consider to be our enemies, as well as in the brokenness and chaos of this world. And we are compelled to become agents of mercy and justice where they are so desperately needed. It is not difficult to see how a differentiated, undivided heart leads to differentiated, undivided communities.

"The creation of an undivided heart, an integrated prefrontal cortext, leads to justice, mercy and humility...Journeying on the high road...is not an exercise limited to what happens in our individual minds. It affects us as groups of people.

"The great myth of modernity as it applies to neuroscience is that we can pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We can attain ultimate mindful peacefulness and, by extension, cultural utopia without an Ultimate Other to save us from ourselves. The ongoing terrorism, global warming, mounting third world debt, along with our own proclivity for insatiable consumption, should quickly wake us from that daydream..."

Ground of Confidence in Prayer

C.S. Lewis said something to the effect that it is a much safer practice to meditate on the love of God for us than to meditate on our love for God. This is true, of course, because our love for Him flounders and is weak, but His love for us is strong and unrelenting and unending.

The Scriptures are full of different ways of encouraging God's people to depend and trust in His unfailing love for us. Ultimately this is the only place of peace and rest for the human soul. When all looks hopeless and impossible in the natural, we find rest in knowing that God is love and that He will not relent nor quit in His pursuit of us and in His pursuit of those that we pray for.

He is an all-consuming Fire of desire for weak humans, and He is filled with divine energy to tirelessly seek and chase us down! This is where I find my confidence in prayer for myself and for others - not in my zeal nor my intercession nor my efforts nor my love, but in His unrelenting zeal, His unceasing intercession, His divinely initiated works, and His selfless love. The cross of Jesus is the highest expression of this reality in God, and this is the solid ground on which I plant my feet when my zeal falters and I'm surrounded with impossible situations. If my focus and trust is in my love for God, I will be discouraged; if I meditate and trust in His love for me and for those I pray for, my heart will be strengthened to believe and to remain steady even while trembling.

All praise to God, the Father and Son and Holy Spirit! May His name be known and loved by more men and women and children because we, His own, trust in His steadfast love to accomplish it...He is worthy!

Caught Off-Guard by Grace

In the book, Addiction and Grace, the following words by Gerald G. May resonate strongly with what I have discovered and continue to discover about God's grace :

"Grace is only truly appreciated and expressed in the actual, immediate experience of real life situations...it can only be 'lived into.'

"Living into the mystery of grace requires encountering grace as a real gift. Grace is not earned. it is not accomplished or achieved. It is not extracted through manipulation or seduction. It is just given. Nothing in our conditioning prepares us for this radical reality. Some would say that early childhood experiences with our parents is important in determining how we come to accept grace in later life. If we had loving, trustworthy parents rather than rejecting or unreliable ones, we would grow up more willing to accept God's grace as a gift. I do not think this is so. We all have trouble accepting the radical giftedness of God's grace, no matter what our childhood experience. God's grace is simply not part of our conditioning. Nor can we make it so, though we are sure to try. All our attempts to control the flow of grace will be frustrated because, like God, grace will not become an object for attachment. 

"Because grace is a pure gift, the most meaningful of our encounters with it will probably come at unintended times, when we are caught off-guard, when our manipulative systems are at rest or otherwise occupied. But still we can pray for grace, actively seek it, and try to relax our hands to receive it..."

Jesus, You are full of grace and truth; come to us and release Yourself upon us and thereby empower us to receive this radical gift of grace!

Dehumanization: The Cost of Progress (part 3)

(See part 2 here: http://nitasbookclub.blogspot.com/2012/09/dehumanization-cost-of-progress-part-2.html)

In this post I will touch on the implications of technology's dehumanization of society for the collective people of God. In the previous post I recommended a video talk by Shane Hipps about this; I also want to highly recommend his recent book, Flickering Pixels, which is quite an eye-opener concerning how technology has and continues to shape us and why western evangelicals got to the place where the version of the Gospel we present is very linear, efficient and individualistic. (Some of what Hipps writes about is similar to Jacques Ellul's work but in simpler and more contemporary language.)

I believe that for the people of God collectively to be a prophetic voice in our day, there is great need for leadership that understands the times we live in and who will courageously face the fact that we as a people have been affected by what Ellul and others write concerning our obsession with progress and production and who will call God's people to a higher place, a life of faith and love.

In our drivenness to erect highly organized systems for just about everything we do thinking this will make us productive, are we unwittingly engaging in what Ellul says is "a busy, pointless, and, in the end, suicidal submission  to technique"? Are we like the man who was digging a hole in order to fill another hole? Are we trying to bring the light of the kingdom of God to the problems of our age by using the world's methods? Have we fallen for the idea that anything of value must be measurable or quantifiable and therefore requires setting up technologies ("standardized means for attaining a predetermined result")?

In the foreword of his book, The Technological Society, Ellul says that humanity is headed towards a certain dire destiny if we continue to uncritically adapt to every new advancement. However, he then suggests that there are three possible things that could happen to alter the course of history; they are:
1)  A general war of such enormous destruction that a technological society would no longer exist.
2)  An increasing number of people becoming aware of the threat of the technological society and determining to assert their freedom by "swimming upstream" so to speak.
3)  God's intervention. 

And so, as it relates to us as a people, I believe we could take the small steps I mention in part 2 but do them with someone else:
1.  Help awaken one another by dialoging about these realities and/or reading material together about this with a few friends.
2.  Help one another develop a healthy suspicion of all that technology promises and offers in order keep alert; and help one another to walk away from our technological devices from time to time as a prophetic act.
3.  Grow together with others in the Lord Jesus, learning to abide/depend on Him together.

Perhaps above all, we can pray (both privately and collectively) that God would raise up more and more prophetic voices to lead His people and that His kingdom would come on earth, that He would intervene and save humanity from self-destruction. Come, Lord Jesus...

Dehumanization: The Cost of Progress (part 2)

(See part 1 here: http://nitasbookclub.blogspot.com/2012/09/dehumanization-cost-of-progress-part-1.html )

In light of what men like Jacques Ellul and C.S. Lewis warn us about concerning the dehumanization of humanity by the powers behind technology ("any complex of standardized means for attaining a predetermined result"), how should we followers of Jesus resist the powerful pull of "progress" in today's world?

In this post I will touch on the personal walk of the believer as it relates to this topic...

This reality isn't new; as Ellul so well points out in his book, The Meaning of the City, all of this has its roots in the building of the first city by Cain. Jesus acknowledged that the world systems lie in the hands of the evil one, so as long as we live in this age, we can't escape from the systems of the world. Jesus spoke of being in the world but not of it. Having recognized that this is not a new reality, it's important to be aware that the "noose" is being tightened around humanity with each generation's technological advancements.

In these posts I'm not pretending to give thorough or easy solutions to this but want to share simple thoughts that I have had about it. I believe that the following are some ways of living prophetic-ly as persons who love and follow Jesus:
1.   Being awake to what we're immersed in, having a healthy suspicion about all that technology promises to give us and the awareness of what we lose when we indiscriminately engage it. (A great presentation related to this is Shane Hipps' talk about how technology shapes us: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkZ9G6ZxtmI.)  Without such awareness, we unwittingly live subject to the powers at work in our technological society.
2.   Being intentional about walking away from the technological devices (smartphones, ipods, TV, e readers, computers, etc., etc), refusing to jump onto them every time the urge comes and developing the ability to do nothing for awhile. Disengaging them altogether for a set time may be needful from time to time. 
3.   Continually abiding in Him who is Truth. This abiding is active and prayerful dependence on Him, trusting Him in the midst of confusing times. Only in Him can we hope to have at least a bit of objectivity when it comes to the influence of these powers over us...He is able to help us be sensitive to what's going on around us that most people aren't aware of.

(In part 3, I'll touch on our prophetic role as a collective people related to this...)

Dehumanization: The Cost of Progress (part 1)

Jacques Ellul, who I quoted last week, has helped give me more insight and language for the reality of the powers at work in society that are far beyond our ability to control apart from Jesus. His was truly a prophetic voice. (For any who may want to know more about Ellul, this link gives a short biography on his life: http://www.ellul.org/bio_e1.html)

In the foreword to Ellul's book, The Technological Society, Robert Merton says this of Ellul's insights:
"By technique…he means far more than machine technology. Technique refers to any complex of standardized means for attaining a predetermined result...The Technical Man is fascinated by results, by the immediate consequences of setting standardized devices into motion...

"Ours is a progressively technical civilization: by that Ellul means that the ever-expanding and irreversible rule of technology is extended to all domains of life. It is a civilization committed to the quest for continually improved means to carelessly examined ends. Indeed, technique transforms ends into means. What was once prized in its own right now becomes worthwhile only if it helps achieve something else.

"Not understanding what the role of technique is doing to him and his world, modern man is beset by anxiety and a feeling of insecurity. He tries to adapt to changes he cannot comprehend.

"In Ellul's conception, then, life is not happy in a civilization dominated by technique...every part of a technical civilization responds to the social needs generated by technique itself. Progress then consists in progressive dehumanization – a busy, pointless, and, in the end, suicidal submission  to technique."

Ellul's works were written in French and translated into English; at the start of this book, the translator, John Wilkinson, says this: "To him (Ellul), to bear witness to the fact of the technological society is the most revolutionary of all possible acts...His concept of the duty of a Christian, who stands uniquely (is 'present') at the point of intersection of this material world and the eternal world to come, is not to concoct ambiguous ethical schemes and programs of social action, but to testify to the truth of both worlds and thereby to affirm his freedom through the revolutionary nature of his religion..."

C.S. Lewis writes about the dehumanization of the human race as well in his work, The Abolition of Man. He says that which we have made eventually makes us: "Man's conquest of Nature turns out, in the moment of its consummation, to be Nature's conquest of Man...We thought we were beating her back when she was luring us on."

In the second and third parts of this, I'll address what this means (at least in part) for those of us who are in Christ.

God Doesn't Oppress Us with His Will but Gives Us Room to Be

In his book, The Politics of God and the Politics of Man, Jacques Ellul looks at accounts from the book of II Kings and presents a case for a God who values human dignity so much that He allows us to freely be who we are. In chapter one Ellul writes about the healing of Naaman, saying that God used many different agents in Naaman's life. He points out that none of the people involved in the healing (Hebrew slave girl, king of Syria, Elisha, Naaman's servants) acted under coercion from God but they acted according to their own "bent", at their own "level" and with their own "personal decision." Ellul goes on to remark, "If the story wanted to show us God crushing the will of man and forcing man to do what God wants, then things would have been very simple."

Unlike other gods who force and bend people to their will, the God and Father of Jesus Christ takes the dignity and freedom of human beings seriously and will not "crush the will of man" and force us to do what He wants. He allows us to be who we are and to act according to our bent, and He takes our small free actions, combines them with the small actions of others and brings about His good will in a situation.

George MacDonald puts it this way in his book, Knowing the Heart of God:

"God does not, by the instant gift of his Spirit, make us always feel right, desire good, love purity, aspire after him and his will...The truth is this: He wants to make us in his own image, choosing the good, refusing the evil. How could he effect this if he were always moving us from within? God gives us room to be. He does not oppress us with his will. He 'stands away from us,' that we may act from ourselves, that we may exercise the pure will for good."

The marvel and genius of God is not that He is able to get things done because we finally "get our act together" but that He is able to get things done through broken vessels who never really get our act together but who freely move and act according to our bent and personal decision.

Majoring on Minors

Recently when troubled by a particular situation, I was praying and asking the Lord for understanding of why I was troubled. As I waited and listened, I heard the word "religion" in my thoughts. Then I remembered something that I've observed in the New Testament stories about Jesus. Whenever He would heal someone or there would be partying over His presence among the sinners, the religious people were unhappy. They couldn't look past the details of the law's requirements in order to celebrate the bigger and more important issues of forgiveness and joy and healing that Jesus' presence always brought to those who would receive Him.

I had a fresh glimpse into an aspect of religion that day: it majors on minors. In his book, Repenting of Religion, Greg Boyd says that in religion, rules trump everything else.

In our proneness towards finding life from judging what's "right" and "wrong" (both in our own lives and those of others), we get easily sidetracked by examining the intricacies of what "right" behavior is, while Jesus is celebrating the bigger issue of deliverance and freedom with the one He has touched.

In the particular situation referred to at the start of this post, there had been great deliverance in the person's life, and the issue over which I was troubled was inconsequential in comparison. I was in danger of missing the Lord's joy over the person involved because of my concern over details of the "law". I have asked the Lord to expose phariseeism in me, and He did once again. Because He spoke to me and opened my understanding, I was able to celebrate with Him and with the person...I'm grateful!

Discipling or Proselytizing...?

A few months ago I posted the following and want to share it again now. In his outstanding book, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church, Roland Allen (Anglican missionary of the early 20th century) contends that we western believers have a "fear for the doctrine"; in other words, our worry about people not getting the "doctrine" right motivates too much of what we do, and Jesus ends up being relegated to a secondary place. He is the First Cause and we tend to stress the secondary causes:

"Fear for the doctrine...leads us to put the doctrine in the wrong place...We speak as if the Gospel and the doctrine, preaching Christ and preaching Christianity, were identical terms.

"There is a difference between the revelation of a Person and the teaching of a system of doctrine and practice.

"...our doctrine so dominates our mind that we can scarcely believe that men can love Christ and be saved by Him unless they know and use our doctrinal expressions. Because we find this difficult we inevitably tend to give the teaching of our doctrine the first place in our work...But the Person is greater and far excels it.

"When we fall into this error, we inevitably tend to make the acceptance of the shadow, the doctrine, the system, the aim and object of our work. In doing that we are doing something of which Christ spoke in very severe terms. To make converts to a doctrine is to make proselytes."

What's the Point of Following Jesus?

The following is from Dallas Willard's book, The Spirit of the Disciplines, and it is quoted in a blog post by Kurt Willems:

“Jesus never expected us simply to turn the other cheek, go the second mile, bless those who persecute us, give unto them that ask, and so forth.  These responses, generally and rightly understood to be characteristic of Christlikeness, were put forth by him as illustrative of what might be expected of a new kind of person – one who intelligently and steadfastly seeks, above all else, to live within the rule of God and be possessed by the kind of righteousness that God himself has, as Matthew 6:33 portrays.  Instead, Jesus did invite people to follow him into that sort of life from which behavior such as loving one’s enemies will seem like the only sensible and happy thing to do.  For a person living that life, the hard thing to do would be to hate the enemy, to turn the supplicant away, or to curse the curser…True Christlikeness, true companionship with Christ, comes at the point where it is hard not to respond as he would.”

In his post, Willems speaks of a typical struggle that many followers of Jesus have, vacillating between an emphasis on personal holiness and doing acts of justice. I think many of us would identify with what he writes there so I recommend reading his complete post:  /http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thepangeablog/2012/08/23/christian-life-worth-living/.

Reactionary Brake-Slamming

I was just remembering this morning a simple reality that the Lord made real to me many years ago when I was running my car through a commercial car wash. As the water was spraying and the big brushes were moving up and down the sides of the car, my reflex reaction was to hit the brakes even though I had the car in "park" mode and it wasn't going anywhere. The combination of diminished vision and machine parts moving outside of the vehicle gave me the sensation that the car was moving...

I learned that to keep from feeling like hitting the brakes, I should look for a reference point, something unmoving, in the wash bay and simply fix my eyes on that. That day I saw a spot on the wall where some paint had chipped off and I kept my eyes on that spot. Now I could relax and enjoy the car wash without a sense of disorientation and without the urge to slam on my car brakes!

Being part of the technology age, we are all caught up in the disorientation caused in part by the break-neck pace of life coupled with an increase of human brokenness and the proliferation of countless opposing opinions and negative emotions that fill the atmosphere through the internet. We as Jesus' followers will resort to fearful reactionary "brake-slamming" in our journey with God because of our desire to keep a sense of stability unless there is a reference point that we are fixed on continually. Jesus is that reference point, the one unmoving reality in our life when all else is moving and changing around us.

I believe He wants us to be able to relax in the midst of the ever moving elements of this age, but we won't be able to if we are constantly "slamming on the brakes" (grasping for control of life) in order to feel secure. He alone is that place of stability and unchanging reality that the human soul longs for. May we find Him to be this reference point (both as individuals and as a people of God)...

Eugene Peterson in The Message paraphrases Hebrews 12:2,3 like this: "Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed - that exhilarating finish in and with God - he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever...When you find yourself flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!"

Fruit of the Spirit: the Way of Washing Feet

I believe the quote below from Dietrich Bonhoeffer helps paint a picture of what it looks like for Jesus' followers to wash the feet of others in His name:

"In the midst of discipline, the entire fullness of the Holy Spirit wants to unfold and to ripen, and we should give it full space within us for the sake of God, for the sake of others, and for our own sake. The entire world of God, the dear Father, wants to be born in us, to grow and ripen. Love—where only suspicion and hostility reign; joy—instead of bitterness and pain; peace—amid internal and external strife; patience—where impatience threatens to overwhelm us; kindness—where only raw and hard words seem to make any difference; goodness—where understanding and empathy seem like weakness; faithfulness—where long separations and enormous changes in all relationships seek to rock the foundations of even what is most stable; gentleness—where recklessness and selfishness seem to be the only ways to reach one’s goals; self-control—where short term pleasures seem to be the only reasonable option and all bonds are about to dissolve."

Simply Jesus - Personal Response

I recently completed a review on N.T. Wright's book, Simply Jesus, and want to give a personal response to the book. Among many things about the book that helped and encouraged me, one strong message that it reinforced for me is that Jesus and His kingdom transcend all earthly kingdoms and empires. In other words, to use Wright's metaphor of the "perfect storm" in this book, the wind of God (Jesus) blows in from an entirely different angle than the winds of religion and politics.

And it reminded me again that we as modern western evangelicals may be aligned with the religious Jewish north wind of Jesus' day more than we would care to admit. We imagine that God is on our side, meaning that He will rescue us from the evil in our world by putting political leaders and policies in place that favor Christianity and that give Christians position and power. But as Wright so aptly points out, the Jews themselves (who had the right story and beliefs but completely misunderstood God's radically different way of dealing with oppressive powers through dealing with the Satan behind all the powers and by transforming the heart of humans) would rule in the very same way as their oppressors if God had done things their way.

Blessing the persecutor while suffering in Jesus' name (which the New Testament promises as part of what it means to follow Jesus in this age) is a key part of how God purges us and teaches us to love, thereby transforming us into kingdom rulers who think and feel as He does. Jesus became King on the cross; as His followers we learn to rule with Him on our own daily crosses (Luke 9:23-25), not through fighting for dominance in the political and/or religious arena. It is in the weak and the foolish acts and attitudes of obedience to the God who gave Himself in love to the undeserving that His kingdom is spread and manifested in the earth today.

Could we today be at a critical moment in God's story in which the contrary blowing winds are gathering strength again? On the one hand there is the political storm of the present empire raging under the strong pressure of western culture and thinking, willing to oppress and suppress whatever gets in the way of its dominance; on the other hand there is the religious wind howling for God to intervene in the ways that will keep the religious systems in power; and then there is God's wind that comes in from an oblique and totally unexpected angle. He has never done the expected. Now, after the victory of Jesus over Satan, the spiritual rulers and authorities have been disarmed but they continue to "huff and puff" in hopes of tricking Jesus' followers into waging war according to the systems of the world. Will we His followers recognize and follow Jesus' transcendent ways that make us look like losers? Will the world see the crucified Lord in us or a religious power system?

May we be those who, like Jesus, can interpret the wind of God's Spirit in our day and align ourselves with His cross-like way and therein demonstrate what His kingdom looks like and how the true King rules in self-giving love and what it will be like when that kingdom comes in its full manifestation one day. It will probably  mean the capsizing of the Christendom ship, but on the other side of the storm, we will find that He is there and remains steadfast and that His ways are infinitely higher and better than ours!

Right-brain Grip of Certitude

Earlier this year I worked through the book, The Bible Made Impossible, by Christian Smith on this blog. So much has that book impacted me that I continue exploring the premise of the book and am finding many serious Bible scholars saying similar things about scripture that Smith does. I've been looking for writings on this topic that are in simpler language, and at the end of my final post about The Bible Made Impossible I listed some other books along these lines: (http://nitasbookclub.blogspot.com/2012/03/afterthoughts-bible-made-impossible.html) 
I'd like to recommend another book which is very readable: Sacred Word, Broken Word by Kenneth Sparks:  http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Word-Broken-Authority-Scripture/dp/0802867189/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344114293&sr=8-1&keywords=sacred+word+broken+word

Just this week I came across one of the clearest and easiest-to-understand articles on this topic that I've read thus far (and I've read many). The author is Jeff Clarke, and the following is a short portion from it:

"...Scripture is not a depository of propositional truth statements to be mined, but a witness to God's gracious and redemptive activity. Scripture is story, a redemptive story, that seeks to draw people in and invite them to become part of what God is doing in the world...We need to allow scripture to be free of our right-brain grip of certitude and learn the art of embracing the openness and ambiguity of the story and its characters. If God isn't afraid of the human ambiguity in scripture, why should we be? We've been given what we need to know to make us wise to salvation; filled as it is with parable, paradox and punctuations of uncertainty…
We need not fear imperfection, but learn to embrace the perfect One within it - Jesus, the Living Word…"

I heartily recommend reading the entire article for the context of this quote; you can find it here: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thepangeablog/2012/08/03/embracing-the-humanity-of-the-bible-listening-for-the-divine-through-human-words/

Simply Jesus - Chapter 15 "Jesus, the Ruler of the World"

We've come to the final chapter of this beautiful book about Jesus: Simply Jesus, Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters. Drawing from the material presented in the previous chapters, N.T. Wright concludes his book in chapter 15 by answering questions such as, "What on earth does it mean today to say that Jesus is king, that he is Lord of the world?...What is he doing in the midst of the dangerous clash of the new secularisms and the new fundamentalisms?..."

The author suggests that there are four typical responses among Christians to what all of this means:
1)  It's about a private spiritual experience having nothing to do with the real and public world.
2)  Jesus will be Lord one day but He's not really Lord yet.
3)  Jesus is now in charge of the world and we need to see how God is working in the world (through social movements) and join in on such movements. (This response tends towards "pantheism", seeing God and the world collapsing into one another.)
4)  Jesus is now in charge but what is needed is a fresh word from God and to be fortified against all human powers and idolatries. (This response tends towards "dualism", seeing God and the world divided by a great gulf.)
In both the third and fourth responses, Jesus' present lordship is recognized but there is disagreement about how His lordship is to be worked out in the world today.

Wright emphasizes that "when we think about God's kingdom in the present and the future, we must always be clear that the ultimate triumph is God's work and God's alone..."  Only God builds God's kingdom. However, we are called to work and build for His kingdom and what we do counts for the future eternal structure even though we can't see how right now.

The following are some highlights from the chapter:

• As he originally intended, God does His work through people, the church, but the church is not supposed to be a society of perfect people doing great work. "It's a society of forgiven sinners repaying their unpayable debt of love by working for Jesus's kingdom in every way that they can..."
• One way that Jesus exercises His lordship today is through His strange and often secret sovereignty over the nations and rulers of the earth. He does this in the following ways: 1) God's plan to operate through humans applies here as much as elsewhere, and if a ruler is not God-fearing, it does not mean that they are not performing a task God wants performed;  2) even when a ruler may be wicked, God can bend their thinking and imaginings to serve His purpose;  3) God will call the nations to account; this will happen eventually when the Messiah returns to complete what He has started, but in the present world, one of the church's primary roles is to hold the world to account.
• The church's task to hold the world to account is not primarily through political means, as Christians in modern western democracies have tended to think. The church "must weigh it (whatever the government does), sift it, hold it to account, affirm what can be affirmed, point out things that are lacking or not quite in focus, critique what needs critiquing, and denounce what needs denouncing...in the early centuries of church history, the Christian bishops gained a reputation of being the champions of the poor. They spoke up for their rights; they spoke out against those who would abuse and ill-treat them..."
• The church has allowed the government to do what is primarily our assignment, and that is to care for the disenfranchised and the poor. 

In summing up the chapter and book, Wright says that through His life and death and resurrection and ascension, Jesus is King of the world now; heaven and earth have joined in Christ Jesus and in those in whom He dwells. The full manifestation of this will come when He returns to earth again one day. Meanwhile, He has called His people to walk out this joining of heaven and earth by walking as He did: first in holding the powers and authorities of the universe accountable as subject to Jesus, and second by doing the "millions of things that the church should be getting into that the rulers of the world either don't bother about or don't have the resources to support..." And we do these things in the context of prayer and worship, claiming the victory He has won.

I'll end with some of Wright's final words: "The poor in spirit will be making the kingdom of heaven happen. The meek will be taking over the earth, so gently that the powerful won't notice until it's too late. The peacemakers will be putting the arms manufacturers out of business. Those who are hungry and thirsty for God's justice will be analyzing government policy and legal rulings and speaking up on behalf of those at the bottom of the pile. The merciful will be surprising everybody by showing that there is a different way to do human relations other than being judgmental and eager to put everyone else down. 'You are the light of the world,' said Jesus. 'You are the salt of the earth.' He was announcing a program yet to be completed. he was inviting his hearers, then and now, to join him in making it happen. This is, quite simply, what it looks like when Jesus is enthroned."

Divine Beauty out of Consummate Ugliness

Thomas Dubay is author of a powerful book about the beauty of God in Jesus entitled "The Evidential Power of Beauty." As we're about to complete going through N.T. Wright's book about Jesus, I want to share a short portion from Dubay's book:

"Far, far beyond all created beauties, breathtaking as we have seen them to be..., is the divine glory that shines out from this unsurpassable love found in the torture of Holy Week. Perfection himself whipped to blood, crowned with thorns, mocked, spit upon, ridiculed, nailed, pierced - all because he loves you and me, who have in return sinned against him. In this consummate ugliness, this unspeakable outrage, shines a picture of divine beauty immeasurably beyond all earthly splendors..."

Simply Jesus - Chapter 14 "Under New Management - Easter and Beyond"

Chapter 14 covers the resurrection, the ascension and enthronement, and the return of Jesus. As are all of the chapters of this book, this one is rich! (Wright bases all that he is saying here on the belief that Jesus did rise from the dead, so in this book he's not trying to present an argument for His rising.)

A New World
Wright says that the most important thing to know about the meaning of Jesus' resurrection is that "he rose as the beginning of the new world that Israel's God had always intended to make." The author points out that because of the western Platonic worldview, we western believers think of heaven as far away whereas in Scripture, "heaven" and "earth" overlap and interlock – the way ancient Jews believed that the Temple was where heaven and earth met. In the resurrection stories told by those who encountered Him, we're seeing the birth of a new creation in Jesus. "Jesus's risen person – body, mind, heart and soul – is the prototype of the new creation…we see him as the new creation in person."

Rembrandt's painting of the Resurrection

The message of the resurrection is NOT, "We're going to heaven now", or "There is life after death." No, the message of Easter is much bigger – it is what the placard on the cross said: Jesus is the King; and now God's new world, God's kingdom has begun in Him.

Ascension and Enthronement
The ascension of Jesus is about His enthronement as the One who is now in charge. (Again Wright urges the reader to push away the idea that heaven is distant and disconnected from earth.)
Wright underscores four things about the ascension (which I will briefly mention here):
1)  When Jesus ascended He did not disappear into a far distance (keeping in mind the Biblical worldview of heaven and earth overlapping).
2)  Heaven is the place from which the world is run.
3)  The ascension is the fulfillment of Daniel 7. Wright warns that we shouldn't expect to be able to put a story like this into "easy contemporary categories", and so he suggests that Luke's description in Acts 1:9 of the ascension is very likely intended "primarily to evoke that famous passage in Daniel 7:1."
4)  The ascension was Jesus radically upstaging Caesar and was now the new emperor; (the Roman world with its tradition about Julius Caesar's soul ascending to heaven and Augustus then becoming "the son of god" would have understood that Jesus was upstaging Caesar).

The Return of Jesus
The story of Jesus' resurrection and ascension was just the beginning of something new; none of the followers of Jesus in the early church supposed that this was fully accomplished. Where we presently are in God's big story is not the end. There will be a "royal appearing", like Caesar when he would return to Rome after visiting the colonies. His loyal citizens would go out to meet him and escort him in triumph back to the capital city.  (Wright warns about the popular idea in North American Christianity of a rapture in which Jesus will come down from "heaven" and His followers will fly up into the sky to be taken to heaven forever. Again this has platonic thinking behind it.)

"…to think of Jesus 'returning' is actually, as both Paul and John say…, to think of him presently invisible, but one day reappearing. It won't be the case that Jesus will simply reappear within the world the way it presently is. His return...will be the central feature of the much greater event itself: heaven and earth will one day come together and be present and transparent to each other. That's what they were made for, and that's what God will accomplish one day. It has, in fact, already been accomplished in the person of Jesus himself; and what God has done in Jesus, bringing heaven and earth together at immense cost and with immense joy, will be achieved in and for the whole cosmos at last…Eph. 1:10."

Jesus Today
The chapter concludes with a section about Pentecost. Between Jesus' ascension and His return/reappearing He has sent His own Spirit into the lives of His followers to be present in and with them, to direct them, and above all to enable them to make known who the world's true King and Lord is through witness and demonstration of kingdom realities.

Wright places the events of Pentecost in their larger story. "…the story line is not about the church discovering these gifts and simply enjoying them for their own sake. It is about the church living as a new community, giving allegiance to Jesus as Lord rather than to the kings and chief priests who rule the Jewish world or the emperor or magistrates who rule the non-Jewish world. 'We must obey God,' declares Peter, 'not human beings!' (Acts 5:29)

"The underlying issues in Acts - provoked by the Spirit - are about the things that come together in the Temple, namely, God and power. Who is the true God? Where is he now living? And, above all, who is now in charge? For the early Christians, the answer was, 'Jesus.'  'They're saying,' said their accusers in Thessalonica, 'that there is another king, Jesus!' (Acts 17:7) Well, precisely. That's what the whole story has been about.

"...Jesus is the Lord, but it's the crucified Jesus who is Lord - precisely because it's his crucifixion that has won the victory over all the other powers that think of themselves as in charge of the world...Jesus's death and his followers' suffering are the means by which his peace, freedom, and justice come to birth on earth as in heaven. Jesus's kingdom must come, then, by the means that correspond to the message. It's no good announcing love and peace if you make angry, violent war to achieve it!"

The sending of His Spirit to His followers is the power needed to live and walk out His victory in His way, the way of crucifixion (suffering, weakness, misunderstanding, persecution...)

Next week we will cover the final chapter, "Jesus: the Ruler of the World", in which Wright attempts to answer the question, "How does all this work out today?"