Come

A man named Simeon lived in Jerusalem... waiting for the time 
when God would come to help Israel, (Luke 2.25).

O come, O come, Emmanuel, 

And ransom captive Israel, 

That mourns in lonely exile here 

Until the Son of God appear. 

Rejoice! Rejoice! 

Emmanuel Shall come to you, O Israel! 

O come, now Wisdom from on high,

Who orders all things mightily; 

To us the path of knowledge show, 

And teach us in her ways to go. 

Rejoice! Rejoice! 

Emmanuel Shall come to you, O Israel! 

O come, O come, now Lord of might, 

Who to your tribes on Sinai’s height 

In ancient times you gave the law, 

In cloud, and majesty, and awe. 

Rejoice! Rejoice! 

Emmanuel Shall come to you, O Israel!

O come, thou Rod of Jesse,
Free thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.

Rejoice! Rejoice! 

Emmanuel Shall come to you, O Israel!

The Most Important Meal of the Day

George Müller, quite possibly reading a Bible

Photo courtesy of georgemuller.org

One of my biggest heroes in the Christian movement is George Müller, the German emigrant minister of the 1800s who built orphan homes in Bristol, England. He rescued thousands of children from a homeless life on the streets, feeding them, clothing them, and providing them an education. All this he did without asking for a single farthing from anyone -- except for God, in prayer. In fact he made it clear that he was explicitly depending on God alone to fund his orphanages as an in-your-face 62+ year-long demonstration to the 19th century world that God still answers prayers.

Interestingly though, despite his reputation as a man of prayer, when George Müller got up in the morning the first thing he did was not to pray. It was to read the Bible. This, he said, was one of the secrets to a prayer life that moves mountains and rescues orphans from the street:  before we go before God in prayer, we must feed our souls. And one did this by "dining" on the words of God, (Gospel of Matthew 4.4).

Müller said that he meditated on scripture until he reached a state that he described as "being happy in the Lord." Once the action of scripture upon a person's heart had made them "happy in the Lord," then they were ready to go before the Lord in prayer. Then they were ready to move mountains.

[For much more information on George Müller, go here and here.]

Just a book?

The Bible does not purport to be just a wise and wonderful book; it purports to be revelation, a living, active entity through which the Holy Spirit of God speaks -- in the present tense. Just as Jesus of Nazareth was not only a wise and wonderful teacher but the unique revelation of the Living God.

The early Christian movement believed "[Moses] received life-giving words (literally, "living words") from God to give to us", (Acts of the Apostles 7.38 ERV). Jesus taught that King David wrote Psalms "by the Holy Spirit" (Gospel of Mark 12.35 - 37).

As the scholar J. N. D. Kelly wrote, "Whenever our Lord and His apostles quoted the Old Testament, it is plain that they regarded it as the word of God," (Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, p. 60). It was the same with the Apostle's writings, because Jesus' followers recognized that they carried the revelation that the Messiah had entrusted them with (p. 56). "The words that I have spoken to you," John records Jesus as saying,  "are spirit and are life," (Gospel of John 6.63).

For them -- and for any who allow themselves to be nourished by the Bible -- "God’s word is alive and working. It is sharper than the sharpest sword and cuts all the way into us. It cuts deep to the place where the soul and the spirit are joined. God’s word cuts to the center of our joints and our bones. It judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts," (Letter to the Hebrews 4.12 ERV).

The word we must not speak

What I'm suggesting is that nice leather-bound book you have on your desk or the paperback version in your car is not just a book: It is something that intelligent 21st century people get vaguely uncomfortable with, something that some scholars devote their lives to showing it is not.

It's supernatural.

When George Müller cracked his Bible open in the morning, he was exposing himself to the creative power of God's own being, as God wants us to experience it. And so are we. Reading the Scriptures, as John Wesley used to say, is a "means of grace," a physical object (like the bread and wine of the Lord's supper) that God has chosen to use to connect you to him. And then anything can happen.

Modern people aren't supposed to think that way. We can explain all that miraculous stuff away with our current understandings, can't we? There's no need to go there, surely.

But as C. S. Lewis wrote, if you are a member of the Christian movement, "Like it or not, you belong to a supernatural religion."

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

______________________________

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.

God of the Pit

<< Read the first part of this series
On Tuesday I told you about a blunt, obscure sentence in the Bible's most pessimistic book that speaks to me like nothing else when I'm depressed. It helps somehow that the book Jesus taught from is quite open about the fact that life stinks and seems utterly meaningless sometimes.

'Job's Despair'
by William Blake

Actually, Scripture is full of depressed and depressing people, stories, and poems. The 42nd psalm (psalms are just poems and song-lyrics) is a real downer. In the Book of Job one man's utter depression over losing everything leads into one of the world's great epic poems about why people suffer. Even God shows up at the end but gives no real answer other than, "It's way, way over your head, but ultimately I'm in control."

This could be an intensely frustrating response, but oddly many people find it comforting. Abraham Lincoln for one is known to have read Job through several times during the Civil War and somehow it strengthened him. Sometimes you're way beyond the point where an explanation would help. But knowing you're not alone, that this is in some awful way 'normal,' that God fully acknowledges what you're going through and neither condemns it nor tries to pull you out of it with platitudes and happy-talk -- you may not be beyond that.

The Depressed God

One of the most mind-blowing things about the Christian Movement, if we can disengage our minds from two millennia of fairy tales and idealized pictures that have built up around it, is that we are worshiping a man who was tortured to death. The records tell us that Jesus did it willingly, the way you might willingly die to save your child. But they also tell us that he did not do it easily.

Mark's rough-n-ready, just-the-facts-ma'am gospel says that in the hours before his arrest he, "became very troubled and distressed. He said to [Peter, James, and John] “My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death." Then he proceeded to beg God not to make him do the thing preachers often say was the very reason Jesus was born -- die. The Saviour of the World did not walk evenly and impassibly to his cross. He was depressed and didn't really want to go. (What he did want to do right down to the end was to obey God, but that's another topic for another post).

Co-Sufferer

The thing about the Christian Movement, the thing about the Holy Scriptures, the thing about Jesus of Nazareth that gives me a ledge to hang onto when I'm deep down in "the hole," is their utter realism. They don't deny or demean anything I'm going through, they don't tell me to cheer up or grow up.

When I cry out, "'Futile! Futile! Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!'" (Ecclesiastes 1.2) I say it -- even when it seems for all the world that I'm alone -- to a God who's yelled something similar,  and can look me straight in the face and say, "Yeah, I know. I wrote that."

"Thy Will Be Done"

Where I go to church we always have a point where we pray the "Lord's Prayer" together. This is a very old custom for the Christian movement, incidentally. An ancient church manual from about AD 110 called The Didache prescribes that it should be prayed 3 times a day.

In the this prayer, after beginning by asking that God's reputation (his "name") be kept holy, Jesus teaches that the next thing to pray about is the theme of all his teaching: The Kingdom of God. He links our request for the Kingdom to come with another request that explains a little more about what that would mean: "Manifest Your will here on earth, as it is manifest in heaven," (Gospel of Matthew 6.9-13, Voice).

Remember that citizenship in God's Kingdom isn't something we get in the great by-and-by. We are already citizens here and now. The Kingdom comes as we live it on earth, in our daily lives. And the action of the Holy Spirit within us, particularly as he 'floods our hearts with his love,' brings us closer and closer to manifesting it 'as it is in heaven.'

The idea for this post, though, actually occurred to me when I read the BibleGateway's verse of the day, which is a famous Old Testament scripture.

He has told you, mortals, what is good in His sight. What else does the Eternal ask of you But to live justly and to love kindness and to walk with your True God in all humility?

Book of Micah 6.8, Voice

What does it look like for the Kingdom to come in our lives, as we "manifest" it? It looks like that.

Light From Light

Meditation for a Sunday Morning

(This is a very old song in the Christian Movement, going back at least to the AD 900s. No one knows who wrote it.)

NATA LUX DE LUMINE

(Light that from the light was born)

I

O Light that from the light was born,

Redeemer of the world forlorn,

In mercy now your suppliants spare,

Our praise accept, and hear our prayer.

II

You who wore our flesh below,

To save our souls from endless woe,

Of your blessed body, Lord, would we

Efficient members ever be.

III

More bright than sun your aspect gleamed,

As snowdrift white your garments seemed,

When on the mount your glory shone,

To faithful witnesses alone.

IV

There did the seers of old confer

With those who your disciples were;

And you on both did shed abroad

The glory of the eternal God.

V

From heaven the Father’s voice was heard

That you the eternal Son declared;

And faithful hearts now love to own

Your glory, King of heaven, alone.

VI

Grant us, we pray, to walk in light,

Clad in your virtues sparkling bright,

That, upward borne by deeds of love,

Our souls may win the bliss above.

VII

Loud praise to you our homage brings,

Eternal God and King of kings,

Who reigns as one, you one in three,

From age to age eternally.

(Hymns of the Early Church, Rev. John Bownlie. London : 1896)

The Victory of Forgiveness

Yesterday, Anselm gave us a moving example of praying for and forgiving your enemies. Essentially he asks God to "destroy" his enemies in the same way Abraham Lincoln described: "Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?"

Jesus of Nazareth of course called on his followers to live in just this way:

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies. Pray for those who treat you badly. If you do this, you will be children who are truly like your Father in heaven. He lets the sun rise for all people, whether they are good or bad. He sends rain to those who do right and to those who do wrong. If you love only those who love you, why should you get a reward for that? Even the tax collectors do that. And if you are nice only to your friends, you are no better than anyone else. Even the people who don’t know God are nice to their friends.

What I am saying is that you must be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

(Gospel of Matthew 5.43 - 48, ERV)

Jesus himself lived this out all the way the end. Hanging from nails that had just been hammered through his hands and feet by Roman soldiers, he famously prayed, "Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing," (Gospel of Luke 23.34, ERV).

At this far a remove from the events of Jesus' execution we 21st century people tend to think of forgiveness in rather abstract terms, as an admirable ethical principal that we ought to apply in our lives. And it is that. But for Jesus on his cross that day it was also something else.

Love, praying for his enemies, and forgiving them were weapons.

Forgiveness as a Weapon

Jesus was not a philosopher, social gadfly, violent revolutionary or most of the other interesting but historically groundless things he has been described as. As his student Simon Peter recognized, he was the Messiah and he fulfilled the role of the Messiah (read a little more about that here and here). When he crisscrossed Galilee and Judah inviting everyone into the Kingdom of God,  rode triumphantly into Jerusalem, and cleansed the Temple, he was doing what most Jewish people expected the Messiah to do. And they knew that the next step would be destroying the enemies of Israel -- the Romans, of course. Who else could it be but the Romans?

But that's where the paths diverged. All the other "Messiahs" battled Rome (or before that the Seleucid

Triumphant Christ by Melozzo da Forli (1483)

Empire), the "obvious" enemy of Israel. Jesus saw a greater enemy though. Yes, we must face facts: Jesus was a firm believer in "he who must not be named" (because it's so unenlightened, you know), Satan the devil. As the focus of evil in the world Satan was the power behind the throne of Rome and the other nations. He was the true enemy of Israel and the Messiah was duty bound to attack and tear down his kingdom. "The Son of God came for this: to destroy the devil’s work," (1st Letter of John 3.8, ERV)

This battle took place not on the Plains of Esdraelon or the Kidron Valley but on Jesus' cross and his weapons were self-sacrificial love, trust in God's justice, the words of Scripture, prayer, and forgiveness.  Forgiveness even for a man who maybe a few days ago had been living as a criminal (Gospel of Luke 23.29-43). The triumph of love over the worst possible hatred, the nullification of the horrific disease of sin, and the forgiveness of all people conquered the devil and smashed to shivers his kingdom in the deep mystery of God's atonement for his children.

It's the same for us today. We in the Christian Movement fight the same battle against evil and to extend God's reign. Praying for your enemies, living out God's love in realtime, and making the Great Announcement of forgiveness to people still has the power to destroy the devil's work.

"I will let everyone who wins the victory sit with me on my throne. It was the same with me. I won the victory and sat down with my Father on his throne," (Book of Revelation 3.21, ERV).

Praying for Enemies

Anselm, a philosopher who lived in the 11th century, was one of the most profound and deeply spiritual minds the Christian Movement has ever produced. Here is how he taught that we should pray for our enemies.

Tomorrow we'll talk about one reason loving your enemies and forgiveness are so important in the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth.

____________________

Almighty and tender Lord Jesus Christ,

I have asked you to be good to my friends,

and now I bring before you what I desire in my heart

for my enemies...


You alone, Lord, are mighty;

you alone are merciful;

whatever you make me desire for my enemies,

give it to them and give the same back to me,

and if what I ask for them at any time

is outside the rule of charity,

whether through weakness, ignorance, or malice,

good Lord, do not give it to them

and do not give it back to me.

*


Your slave begs you for his fellow slaves,

lest because of me they offend

against the kindness of so good and great a lord.

Let them be reconciled to you and in concord with me,

according to your will and for your own sake.

*

This is the punishment

that in the secret of my heart

I want to exact

for those who serve with me and those who sin with me –

this is the punishment that I ask

for those who serve with me and hate me –

let us love you and each other

as you will and as is expedient for us,

so that we may make amends to the good Lord

for our own and for each other’s offences;

so that we may obey with one heart in love

one Lord and one Master.

This is the revenge your sinner asks

on all who wish him evil and act against him.

Most merciful Lord,

prepare the same punishment for your sinner.



I have prayed as a weak man and a sinner;

you who are mighty and merciful, hear my prayer.



(From Ward, Benedicta. Prayers and Meditations of St. Anselm With the Proslogion. New York: Penguin, 1973)

Expanded Kindness

Lord, your patience exceeds our comfort. We pray to step beyond the boundaries of what we call kindness. Expand our notion of mercy and enable us to turn toward our enemies even when they do not turn toward us. Amen.

(CommonPrayer.net)

Most Eligible Scripture

If you come here to learn or discuss basic, historic Christianity, chances are you've been looking into your Bible quite a bit. Of course, so are a lot of other people. Ever wonder what everybody else might be interested in?

According to the leading online Bible site BibleGateway.org here are the top 10 scriptures looked up by the 456 million visitors to their site in 2013:

1. John 3:16
2. Jeremiah 29:11
3. Philippians 4:13
4. Romans 8:28
5. Psalm 23
6. Proverbs 3:5-6
7. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
8. Romans 12:2
9. Philippians 4:6
10. Joshua 1:9


And we most wanted to know what Scripture taught about these 10 topics:

1. love
2. peace
3. faith
4. children
5. heart
6. hope
7. joy
8. prayer
9, strength
10. pray

The article has some other interesting factoids as well. Read it here.

Covenant

Covenant Prayer 

by John Wesley

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will,
   rank me with whom you will.
Put me to doing,
   put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you,
   exalted for you or brought low for you.
Let me be full,
   let me be empty.
Let me have all things,
   let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
   you art mine,
      and I am yours.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
   let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

Christ the Infinite

'Christ Harrowing Hell'
Courtesy of Shako

(This is a set of hymns chanted today in many Orthodox churches)

The Bright Resurrection of Christ

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling on death by death, and on those in the tombs bestowing life.

Though You descend into the grave, O Immortal One, yet You destroyed the power of hell, and rose again as Conqueror, O Christ our God, saying to the myrrh-bearing women, Rejoice! and giving peace to Your Apostles, and offering to the fallen resurrection.

O great and holiest Passover, Christ! O Wisdom, Word and Power of God! Grant that we may more perfectly partake of You in the unending Day of Your Kingdom.

Having slept in the flesh as a mortal, O King and Lord, You were raised on the third day. You raised up Adam from corruption and abolished death, O Passover of incorruption, Salvation of  the world!

Though You descended into the grave, O Immortal One, yet did You destroy the power of hell, and rose again as Conqueror, O Christ our God, saying to the myrrh-bearing women, Rejoice! And giving peace to Your Apostles, and offering to the fallen resurrection.

In the grave bodily, in hell with the soul as God, in Paradise with the thief, and on the throne with the Father and the Spirit were You Who fill all things, O Christ the Infinite.