Advent - A Tale of Two Messiahs

How messiahs are supposed to be

As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
     seemingly insignificant among the clans of Judah—
from you a king will emerge who will rule over Israel on my behalf, 
    one whose origins are in the distant past. 
So the Lord will hand the people of Israel over to their enemies until the time when 
     the woman in labor gives birth. 
Then the rest of the king’s countrymen will return 
     to be reunited with the people of Israel. 
He will assume his post and shepherd the people by the Lord’s strength, 
     by the sovereign authority of the Lord his God. 
They will live securely, for at that time he will be honored 
     even in the distant regions of the earth.


Micah, 5.2 - 4

Christmas marks the point at which God invaded his wayward world. It won't be long now before the invasion takes place, when the True King makes his move and lands on the beaches of our world, armed to the teeth. The Messiah is coming, but when he does he will confound all but a handful of followers. For his battles and weaponry will not be what we expect at all.

When Mary and Joseph made their trek to Bethlehem there was no single, universally accepted idea of what the Messiah would be like. Some people, mostly the monied interests, didn't believe there would be a Messiah at all. Of those that did believe, there were some that thought he would be a supernatural being like an angel, while others said he would just be a mighty warrior, like King David.  This is probably why Herod called for the experts in such things: To cut through the morass of ideas and get some dependable advice. The experts famously replied with today's scripture.

Despite all the squabbling, there were certain things any real Messiah was expected to do. He must ride into Jerusalem, sword drawn, armor gleaming in the sun David-like, and fight the final, bloody, climactic battle against the forces of evil, understood by one and all to be Rome. Once he utterly defeated the pagans, Messiah would restore the glory of Israel and rule over it in peace and security. The gentiles would be forced to admit that Israel was God's chosen people and they would stream to Jerusalem, hoping to enjoy some of Israel's blessings.

This is wildly different from what Mary's child actually did when he grew up, so much so that no one got it at first. Sure he rode into Jerusalem -- though brandishing no razor-sharp sword. But he didn't defeat the Romans; they defeated him. He didn't usher in peace and security: Israel was still in captivity.  Most of the nation rejected him outright. Even his closest followers were completely at a loss how this man who seemed in so many ways to fulfill the Messiah's role utterly failed (they thought) in his mission. Remember those plaintive words in the Gospel of Luke? "But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel!"

Action Figure

The ultimate victory

The Jewish people so dearly yearned for that powerful, action-figure Messiah that they would or could abide no other.  And today many good Christian people pine -- sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously -- for his Second Advent when it is eagerly expected that something much more exciting and bloody will occur. Something more like what the first century Jews hoped would happen, perhaps.

Because the second coming is when evil will really be defeated, the Messiah will finally rule, and then the world will be forced to admit that we were God's chosen people. Right?  

But no. Jesus' Second Coming, for all it's importance is, in the words of the scholar Leon Morris, a mere "mopping up operation." The cosmic, messianic victory that "destroyed the devil's work" was won in the 1st century with the invasion of a baby and the execution of a criminal and we celebrate the start of that victory now.

Make no mistake: Jesus Christ will return on the clouds of Heaven, establish his eternal Kingdom, right all wrongs, and judge the living and the dead.  But also make no mistake that the prophesied King has already come, "whose origins are in the distant past," the child of "the woman in labor who gives birth," as our scripture says.

He did reunite his countrymen in the Israel of God, he did take his post and has shepherded his people for the past 2000 years. He is honored in the distant regions of the Earth, is he not? Peace and security? He gave those to us as well (see the Gospel of John 14.27 and 10.28 - 29).

Most important of all, Jesus did ride triumphantly into Jerusalem where he fought the climactic last battle with the true Enemy, and from that battle he did emerge victorious. Counterintuitive as it is, the true Messiah was the one who invaded quietly as the baby of Bethlehem, won his greatest victory nailed to a cross, and inaugurated his Kingdom by emerging from a tomb.

*          *          *

Our Lord and our God, thank you for invading our world by stealth as a small infant so that you could rise up from among your people and take down the forces of evil. Until you return, help us to be faithful in carrying out our own mopping up operations. In Jesus Christ's name we pray this. Amen

Holy Stubbornness

"In that town there was a widow"

Anonymous image from WikiCommons

On Sundays I like to let an ancient Christian writer explain something about a passage of scripture. This time I've got Ephrem the Syrian, one of the early Christian Movement's greatest poets, among other things. Theological trivia of the day: he's technically not discussing the actual Gospel of Luke but a portion of the Diatessaron, an early attempt to combine the 4 gospels into one continuous story. The result is the same for our purposes but FYI the scripture quotation below is from Luke, not from the Diatessaron. It's also my first try here at translating the scripture myself, something I might try again sometime if it turns out ok. The link leads to my traditional NET Bible.


Jesus told a parable to teach them they should always pray and never get discouraged. “There once was a judge in a certain town," he began, "who had no reverence for God and respected nobody. And in that town there was a widow. She kept coming before him with the plea, ‘Give me justice against my opponent!’ For a while he rejected her plea, but finally he told himself, ‘I may not revere God or respect anyone, but this widow is wearing me out! So I will give her justice, before her constantly coming before me becomes intolerable!’”

The Lord concluded, “Listen to what this unjust judge is saying! And won't God most certainly make sure that justice is done for his chosen people, who plead with him day and night? Will he delay executing justice for them? I'm telling you he will see to it that they receive justice -- and soon! But even so, when the Son of Man comes will he find any faith on the earth?”

Gospel of Luke 18.1-8

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How was that unjust judge immoral and wicked? How was the upright judge gracious and just? The first in his iniquity was not willing to vindicate the widow, and in his wickedness, he was not willing to put her mind at rest. The justice of God knows how to vindicate, and his grace discerns how to give life. The iniquity of this wicked judge was contrary to the justice of God, and the wickedness of this rebel was in opposition to the grace of the gentle One. His wickedness therefore was stubbornness, for it dared to go against the fear of God. His boldness was stubborn, for it refused the lowly person.

These two were stubborn, but persistent prayer was even more stubborn. The persistence of the widow humiliated both the iniquity that was rebelling against God and the boldness that was behaving arrogantly towards human beings. She subjected them to her will, so that they might provide her with a vindication over her adversary. Persistence transformed these two bitter branches, and they bore sweet fruit that was against their nature. The iniquity of the judge brought about a righteous judgment and a just retribution for the falsely accused woman. His wickedness gave peace to the afflicted one, although iniquity does not know how to judge, and wickedness does not know how to give refreshment.

Persistence forced these two evil and bitter branches to give good fruit against their nature. If we persist in prayer, we should be even more able to prevail on the grace and justice of God to give us fruit that agrees with their nature. Let justice vindicate us, and let grace refresh us. Accordingly, the fruit of justice is the just reward of the oppressed, while the giving of refreshment to the afflicted is the fruit of grace.

Ephrem the Syrian (born c. AD 306 died after 373)
Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron 16.16.

Jesus and the Toads

A vile toad

Photo by Paul Henjum

I ran across this passage by Richard Baxter, famous puritan teacher, and it just made me laugh with his picture of Christ holding himself back from making fun of all us toads in our little swamp. Sorry, this is what happens to old theology students: we find ourselves snickering at 17th century preachers.

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As a sinner, you are far viler than a toad. Yet Christ was so far from making light of you and your happiness that He came down into the flesh, and lived a life of suffering, and offered Himself a sacrifice to the justice which He has provoked, that your miserable soul might have a remedy. It is no less than miracles of love and mercy that He has showed to us.


Richard Baxter (AD 1615 - 1691),
From his sermon Making Light of Christ and Salvation

Never Out

The Lord is loving to humans beings, and swift to pardon, but slow to punish. Let no one therefore despair of his own salvation.

Cyril of Jerusalem (AD 313 - 386)
Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem

Or as the Salvation Army says, "A man may be down, but he is never out."

Bottom Line

Some people think Pope Francis is a marxist, socialist, radical for his idea of restructuring the global economy so that it revolves around human need rather than "the bottom line." This may be true, but he is in good company.

A girl in India

Courtesy of Varun Chatterji

Those who enact unjust policies are as good as dead,
those who are always instituting unfair regulations,
to keep the poor from getting fair treatment,
and to deprive the oppressed among my people of justice,
so they can steal what widows own,
and loot what belongs to orphans.
What will you do on judgment day,
when destruction arrives from a distant place?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?

(Book of the Prophet Isaiah 10.1 - 3, NET)

What Preaching Should Do

Preaching must either break a hard heart or heal a broken one.

--John Newton


Preaching (including internet preaching) is foolish, you know. The Apostle Paul said so himself:

Since in the wisdom of God the world by its own wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching. (1 Corinthians 1.21)

"Preach" is something of a dirty word today: "Don't you preach at me!" Preaching today is usually assumed to be criticism.  But in reality, Christian preaching is supposed to be about the Gospel, the message Jesus sent us to spread all over the world.  And the Gospel is really an announcement -- the Great Announcement as we like to call it on this site: "The universe has a king, namely, Jesus of Nazareth! His Kingdom is here, now and will put everything right! Come join it; everyone is invited."

Oh, and as part of the bargain, every wrong, selfish thing you've ever done will be forgiven forever.

This is not criticism, it's good news.

As this blog frequently points out, Paul also said that this announcement, "is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes," (Romans 1.16). This announcement, itself, is charged with that power.

When people hear it -- truly hear it -- the hardest hearts can break with compassion for their fellow beings, and the most injured hearts can heal.

Infinite Power, Infinite Compassion

"Gentleness"

Etching by Chaim Koppelman

It is the prerogative of great strength to be gentle. Always remember that you are linked with the Infinite God, and that all things are possible to you. There must also be infinite pity. We must be tolerant and pitiful to those who abuse us, or have been embittered by disappointment, or have been ill-used.

It must be our aim to make allowances for such, and always to be sweetly reasonable towards any brusqueness, rudeness and bad manners of their behaviour. Let us be willing to admit that much is due to congenital moroseness. Therefore, we bear gently with the erring, and with those who are out of the way, because we also are encompassed with infirmity.

F B Meyer

Law of Liberty

This is my Synchroblog for July. Synchroblog is a little community of Christian blogs that post on a particular subject each month. Unfortunately I've been bad and not done one of these since January! This month our topic is "Liberty." The bloggers who posted this time are listed at the bottom of this page. Please visit us all! We're an interesting and eclectic group!

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Maybe you've heard of the book The Year of Living Biblically, in which an agnostic New York reporter tries to, "follow every single rule in the Bible as literally as possible." He did it mainly for laughs at the expense of fundamentalists, but there are Christians in the world who do their best to live according to the Law of the Old Testament. And once upon a time I was one of them.

Just a brief bit of background: As I've mentioned in past posts, my family was Catholic. Regrettably though, I didn't pick up much about Christianity there. Then my mother who had always been a seeker, deeply interested in God, left the Catholic Church to join a small, quasi-fundamentalist group called the Worldwide Church of God (or WCG for short), and a few years later I followed her.

When I was 16 I'd had a very intense spiritual experience and I came away from it "on fire for God." I yearned to find a group that was passionately serious about following and obeying whatever he wanted humans to do, and if there is one thing that this church was, it was passionately serious, particularly about the Bible.

Focus

There is a lot I could say, good and bad, about my experience with the WCG but what I want to focus on here is their teaching that Jesus' true followers would be observing the Old Testament Law of Moses (or as we called it without fail, "God's Law.")

We understood that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross had fulfilled the bloody sacrifices of bulls and goats the ancient Israelites observed.  But that still left not only the 10 Commandments, which most Christians like, but hundreds of other statutes, ordinances, and laws about such things as fasting, what to eat, what to do about certain diseases, fabrics you can't wear, the problem of mildew, and how long a woman has to wait after having a baby before she can go back to the temple (or in our case, back to church).

And what was in some ways most important of all, rules on keeping the 7th day Sabbath and religious festivals. The Sabbath especially was seen as a special sign from God that identified who his true people were:

The Lord said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘Surely you must keep my Sabbaths, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

Book of Exodus 31.12-17, NET

Many fundamentalist Churches think (or if you go back far enough, all protestant Churches thought) the Roman Catholic Church is a false, corrupted, pagan organization and the real followers of Jesus were little groups hiding in "the wilderness" through the years. My church believed that too but our contribution was the idea that you could tell the true Christians in history from not-so-true Christians by which ones had the sign of the 7th day Sabbath. If they also kept "God's Holy Days" (nicely summed up in the 23rd chapter of the Book of Leviticus), so much the better.

Interpretation

During my time in the WCG I learned one of the same lessons that the author of Year of Living Biblically learned: everybody interprets. Even though our ministers constantly preached against interpreting the Bible ("The Bible interprets itself!"), you really can't apply the Law to your life without interpreting it. A random example: part of the instructions for the holy day called the Feast of Tabernacles (or 'booths' or 'shelters') is to,

Go out into the hill country and get branches from different kinds of olive trees. Get branches from myrtle trees, palm trees, and shade trees. Use the branches to make temporary shelters. Do what the law says!

Book of Nehemiah 8.15 & Leviticus 23.39 - 43, ERV

I understand that Orthodox Jews in New York still faithfully build these shelters on fire escapes and places like that every Fall. But for us? Nah! The leafy shelters were interpreted into nice hotel rooms (without ever using the pagan I-word, of course).

We diligently ate kosher, although it was our own version: the story was that supposedly a rabbi could "bless" almost anything and declare it kosher, so you couldn't trust their kosher. We applied Leviticus 11 (where the kosher laws are) our way. On another subject, no intimate relations during your wife's period (Leviticus 20.18). And if she ever gave birth to a boy she couldn't go back to church for 40 days -- twice that for a baby girl (Leviticus 12).

We observed a particularly strict interpretation of the tithing (old English for "tenth") laws, largely based on some things the Jewish historian Josephus said (Antiquities 4.205 and 4.240 - 243) and so gave 30% of our income: 10% for the church, 10% so we could attend the Feast of Tabernacles (having 10% of your income to blow in 7 days at some vacation spot was pretty cool, I must admit), and 10% for the poor, widows and orphans.

All these laws were originally written for shepherds and farmers so we found ourselves (or more likely the minister) trying to apply the deep inner principles of laws like,

A man might take a cover off a well or dig a hole and not cover it. If another man’s animal comes and falls into that hole, the man who owns the hole is guilty.

Book of Exodus 21.33, ERV

And so on.

Experience Good and Bad

Now you might think that living with all these strictures would be unbearable, especially for a 20th century (then) american with our individualism deeply ground into us, and it could rankle at times. But really, in a way, it was rather comforting, because you always knew what you were expected to do. I can see the attraction of living by an expanded Talmud, as the Jewish tradition is. Besides, these were Bible rules we were keeping! You weren't supposed to smoke but we had nothing against "drinkin', dancin', and goin' to the movie show" that old-time puritans used to inveigh against.

Plus I was among people who, for the most part, were zealously doing their best to obey and serve God to the best of their understanding. Since we were a small and non-mainstream group we depended on each other, which gave it a warm family atmosphere.

For the most part my experience living this way was pretty benign, but I can't and won't pretend that that was true for everybody. The full-throated legalism we espoused hurt a lot of good people. Although the WCG loosened up later on, for many years we broke up second marriages and told the wives to go back to their first husbands. People went bankrupt or just barely scraped by under the weight of those 3 tithes. Specious interpretations of the Book of Genesis bred a strain of racism in the church,  and while we did have non-white ministers and administrators interracial marriage was forbidden.

Worse in a way were the intense feelings of guilt so many had. Because, after all, "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?" (Prophecy of Jeremiah 17.9, KJV). Although we taught that God would forgive sins we also insisted that you had to obey Old Testament Law to please God. A christian that didn't was a false christian. How could you know, with your evil, desperately wicked heart, that you had done enough? If you hadn't, no matter how sincere you may have been, your only destination was The Lake of Fire (Book of Revelation 20.15).

Somehow, this horrific fear never bothered me much (which, I suppose, meant I was a shoe in for that Lake). I just never thought a God who said,

There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit, which brings us life in union with Christ Jesus, has set me free from the law of sin and death (the first scripture I ever read and understood, when I was a very young Christian)

Letter to the Romans 8.1 - 2, GNT 

would toss me into a Lake of Fire if he could possibly avoid it. God has a bias, I believe. But I know that there are thousands, some very close to me, who were scared deeply by this church and cannot get free from their chains of guilt.

Liberation

Eventually, I realized that I had let other people do my thinking for me. I started over from the beginning, trying to read the scriptures with no preconceived notions. What were the Gospels and the Apostles really trying to say? There were too many things in the theology is learned that didn't make sense to me anymore, among them being how the Law, given by God, relates to the Messiah (who is God as it turns out) and has the perfect right to revamp it as he pleases. Even abolishing it entirely, as a law, and replacing it with a law 'placed in our minds and written on our hearts,' (Hebrews 8).

What I found turned out to be ordinary, everyday, garden-variety Christianity -- which was also some of the most explosive, counter-cultural dynamite the world has ever seen.

"Love, then do what you will," said St. Augustine. I don't live by the Law of Moses anymore. I am free of it. Now I, "peer into the perfect law of liberty and fix my attention there," (James 1.25) the Law of love.

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Here is the list of contributors this month. Go read them all and leave a comment!

• Jerry Wirtley – Liberty …
• Bobbi Ann Allen – My Allegiance Has Changed
• Justin Steckbauer – The Topic Of Liberty
• MinnowSpeaks – The Talk
• Jeremy Myers – Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death?
• Carol Kuniholm – Liberty and Constraint
• K.W. Leslie – Why I Don’t Want Go To Church: No Freedom
• Jesus Without Baggage – Where The Spirit of The Lord Is, There Is Liberty
• Glenn Hager – Rebel
• James Carter – Law of Liberty
• Mallory Pickering – Don’t Give Up
• Leah Chang – Free To Be
• Liz Dyer – Fighting For Freedom & Equality

"...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.

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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

"When Sins are Erased"

(A very Lent-like poem by Israel's King David. Suggested by N T Wright in Lent for Everyone, which I'm using to prepare myself for Easter.)

~          ~          ~

It is a great blessing when people are forgiven
     for the wrongs they have done,
     when their sins are erased.  
It is a great blessing when the Lord says
     they are not guilty,    
     when they don’t try to hide their sins.

Lord, I prayed to you again and again,
     but I did not talk about my sins.
        So I only became weaker and more miserable.
Every day you made life harder for me.
     I became like a dry land in the hot summertime.

Selah  

But then I decided to confess my sins to the Lord. I stopped
  hiding my guilt
    and told you about my sins.
And you forgave them all!

Selah  

That is why your loyal followers pray to you
     while there is still time.
Then when trouble rises like a flood,
     it will not reach them.
You are a hiding place for me.
     You protect me from my troubles. You surround me and protect me,
     so I sing about the way you saved me.

Selah  

The Lord says, “I will teach you and guide you
    in the way you should live.
        I will watch over you and be your guide.
Don’t be like a stupid horse or mule
     that will not come to you unless you put a bit in its mouth
        and pull it with reins.”

Many pains will come to the wicked,
     but the Lord’s faithful love will surround
       those who trust in him.
Good people, rejoice and be very happy in the Lord.
All you who want to do right, rejoice!


(Book of Psalms 32.1-11 ERV )

"...the port of divine forgiveness..."

Meditation for a Sunday Morning

"In Christ we are made free by his blood sacrifice. We have forgiveness of sins because of God’s rich grace."

Letter to the Ephesians chapter 1 verse 7 ERV

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Tertullian, a writer during the days of the early Christian Movement, declares that there is no sin that God will not forgive.

To all sins then, if committed by flesh or by spirit, if by deed or will, the same God who has destined penalty by means of judgment, has truly engaged to grant pardon by means of repentance, calling to people, 'Repent, and I will save you' (Prophecy of Ezekiel 18.21)... That repentance, sinner, like myself (actually less than myself, because I claim first place in sinning as my own) hurry to embrace like a shipwrecked man would the safety of a random plank. It will pull you out when you are sunk in the waves of sin, and carry you forward into the port of divine forgiveness.

Tertullian (AD c. 160 – c. 225)
"On Penance," chapter 4