Jesus at the Hard Rock Cafe

Photo by Paweł Sikora Sikorr

Larry Hurtado who is a favorite Bible scholar of mine and whom my wife, son, and I got to hear lecture recently, is probably the world's leading expert on how exactly Jesus' followers wrapped their minds around what for them psychologically was an utter impossibility: that this guy they knew was actually God. We can go into that sometime.

Another topic he is studying is just how unique in the world the early Christian movement was. He recently wrote a book called Destroyer of the gods:  Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World, where he points out that a lot of what we take for granted about the whole idea of religion came from Jesus' movement, from Christians.  (*Unfortunately Professor Hurtado passed away in 2019).

A little while back he blogged on one example he came across...

______________________  

Passing by the Hard Rock Café in Edinburgh today, I noticed again their slogan: “Love all, serve all,” and noted that it reflects the (likely unconscious) influence of the NT upon western culture.  For the motto self-evidently owes to the sentiments first expressed in NT passages such as Matthew 5:43-48, with its distinctive injunction to “love your enemies” as well as your “neighbour”, and Matthew 20:26 (and Mark 10:43-44), with the striking demand that “whoever would be great among you must be servant of all.”

I suspect, however, that neither the founders (nor the Seminole Indians of Florida who now own the restaurant chain) are aware of this.  It just shows how the values and themes of the NT have now become part of the conceptual “ground water” of western culture.

My recent book, Destroyer of the gods:  Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World (Baylor University Press, 2016) makes the points that early Christianity (in the first three centuries) had distinctive features, and that these once-distinctive features have now become cultural commonplaces for us.  I don’t refer to the Hard Rock Café or its slogan, but there’s lots of other (and, hopefully, more interesting) stuff that I hope will address our “cultural amnesia.

Everything is New

Happy New Years!

The ultimate New Years resolution (and the importance of keeping it, according to John Chrysostom).

"When anyone is in Christ, it is a whole new world. The old things are gone; suddenly, everything is new!"  (2 Corinthians 5.17, ERV )

_________________

Tell me, if we see new heavens and other portions of his creation, is there a profit in this which can match the benefit we gain from seeing a man converted from evil to virtue and changing from the side of error to that of truth? This is what the blessed Paul called a new creature, and so immediately he went on to say: “The former things have passed away; behold, they are all made new!” By this he briefly showed that those who, by their faith in Christ, had put off like an old cloak the burden of their sins, those who had been set free from their error and been illumined by the light of justification, had put on this new and shining cloak, this royal robe. This is why he said: “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the former things have passed away; behold, they are all made new.”  

I exhort you, therefore, both you who have previously been initiated and you who have just now enjoyed the Master’s generosity, let us all listen to the exhortation of the apostle, who tells us: “The former things have passed away; behold, they are all made new.” Let us forget the whole past and, like citizens in a new world, let us reform our lives, and let us consider in our every word and deed the dignity of him who dwells within us. 

John Chrysostom (AD c. 344–407)

Baptismal Instructions 4.12, 16 (Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation. Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist, 1946-.:71-72)

Produce

Photo by fir0002

When we walk in the Spirit He produces in us the fruit of a holy character. The contrast between the works of the -- i.e., the selfish life -- and the fruit of the Spirit, which is the natural product of His influence, is very marked. In works there is effort, the clatter of machinery, the deafening noise of the factory. But fruit is found in the calm, still, regular process of Nature, which is ever producing in her secret laboratory the kindly fruits of the earth.

 How quiet it all is! There is no voice nor language. It is almost impossible to realise what is being effected by a long summer day of sunshine. The growing of autumn arrives with noiseless footsteps.

So it is with the soul that daily walks in the Spirit. There are probably no startling experiences, no marked transitions, nothing special to record in the diary, but every year those who live in close proximity witness a ripening wealth of fruit in the manifestation of love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.

F. B. Meyer

"...Faith comes not through pondering..."

Fifth Sunday of Lent

"Come near to God and he will come near to you. You are sinners, so clean sin out of your lives. You are trying to follow God and the world at the same time. Make your thinking pure." 

Letter of James chapter 4 verse 8, ERV


Lent is about humbling one's self and taking on the nature of Christ. Each Sunday during this time I will let wise Christians speak on these subjects. In this post the Orthodox writer Tito Colliander describes how to begin the Christian journey.

_____________

It is for us to begin. If we take one step towards the Lord, he takes ten towards us -- he who saw the prodigal son while he was at a distance, and had compassion and ran and embraced him... Faith comes not through pondering but through action. Not words and speculation but experience teaches us what God is. To let in fresh air we have to open a window; to get tanned we must go out into the sunshine. Achieving faith is no different; we never reach a goal by just sitting in comfort and waiting, say the holy Fathers. Let the prodigal son be our example. He arose and came.

Tito Colliander, 

The Way of the Ascetics, p. 74

For Christ

To me, the only important thing about living is Christ. And even death would be for my benefit.

(Letter to the Philippians chapter 1 verse 21, ERV)

__________

Your business -- are you doing it for Christ ? Is it not done for self- aggrandizement and for family advantage? Do you ask, “Is that a mean reason?” For the Christian it is. He professes to live for Christ; how can he live for another object without committing a spiritual adultery?

Charles Spurgeon

"The Power of His Resurrection"

Meditation for a Sunday Morning

"My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."

Letter to the Philippians chapter 3 verses 10-11

__________________________

(The great evangelist of the Christian Movement, Charles Spurgeon, reminds us that simply believing Jesus rose from the dead is not enough.)

"The resurrection is the corner-stone of the entire building of Christianity. But to know that he has risen, and to have fellowship with him as such, communing with the risen Saviour by possessing a risen life, seeing him leave the tomb by leaving the tomb of worldliness ourselves -- this is even still more precious.  

"I would have you believe that Christ rose from the dead so as to sing of it, and derive all the consolation which it is possible for you to extract from this well-ascertained and well-witnessed fact, but I beseech you, rest not contented even there. Though you cannot, like the disciples, see him visibly, yet I bid you aspire to see Christ Jesus by the eye of faith, and though, like Mary Magdalene, you may not “touch” him, yet may you be privileged to converse with him, and to know that he is risen, you yourselves being risen in him to newness of life.  

"To know a crucified Saviour as having crucified all my sins, is a high degree of knowledge, but to know a risen Saviour as having justified me, and to realize that he has bestowed upon me new life, having given me to be a new creature through his own newness of life, this is a noble style of experience. Short of it, none ought to rest satisfied. 

"May you both “know him, and the power of his resurrection.” Why should souls who are quickened with Jesus, wear the grave-clothes of worldliness and unbelief? 

"Rise, for the Lord is risen."