Not a Ghost

God born through a peasant girl. What kind of being did that make Jesus of Nazareth? Here's how the early Christian movement described it.

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The Voice took on flesh and became human and chose to live alongside us. We have seen Him, enveloped in undeniable splendor—the one true Son of the Father—evidenced in the perfect balance of grace and truth.

(Gospel of John 1.14, Voice)

Believe then that this only-begotten Son of God, for our sins, came down from heaven to earth and took upon himself this human nature with the same emotions and urges as we have. He was begotten of the Holy Virgin and the Holy Spirit, and was made human, not seemingly or as a mere show, but for real. And not by passing through the Virgin like a stream, but through her becoming actual flesh. He was actually nursed on milk, and actually ate and drank as we do.  For if the incarnation was a just a ghost, then salvation is a ghost as well.

The Christ had two natures, human in what was visible, but God in what was invisible. As a human, actually eating like us, since He had the same feelings in his body as us, but as God feeding the five thousand from five loaves. As a human actually dying, but as God raising a man [Lazarus] that had been dead four days. Actually sleeping in the ship like a human, and walking upon the waters as God.

Cyril of Jerusalem (AD 313 - 386)
Catecheses number 4 section 9

'Memento Mori'

For more about the Christian teaching on life and death (the real teaching, the one we started out with and actually still teach without most people noticing) visit our page on 'LIFE.'

memento mori

Photo courtesy of Leo Reynolds

Sorry to bring this up on a nice, relaxing weekend. I know you'd probably rather not hear it, uncomfortable subject that it is. But death, after all, is an integral part of Jesus' teachings. He spoke on it and its ramifications at length. As they used to say during the Middle Ages, "memento mori" -- "Remember, you too must die." So for your Sunday meditations I present one of the great teachers of the Christian Movement, followed by several scriptures to back her up.

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Remember you have but one soul; you will die but once; you have only one life, which is short, and which you must live on your own account; there is only one heaven, which lasts forever—this will make you indifferent to many things.

Teresa of Ávila  (AD 1515 - 1582)
Minor Works of St. Teresa, p. 198


As for me, my days are sprinting by like a runner. Seeing nothing good, they seek escape... Humankind, born of woman, has a few brief years with much suffering.

Book of Job 9.25 and 14.1, Voice


You have determined the length of my days, and my life is nothing compared to You. Even the longest life is only a breath.”

Book of Psalms 39.5, Voice


A voice says, “Declare!” But what shall I declare? All life is like the grass. All of its grace and beauty fades like the wild flowers in a field. The grass withers, the flower fades as the breath of the Eternal One blows away. People are no different from grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; nothing lasts except the word of our God. It will stand forever.

Book of Isaiah the Prophet 40.6-8, Voice

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."

Christian Copyright

Cyprian of Carthage

It's really too bad that we didn't register 'Christian' and 'Christianity' as trademarks back in ancient Rome (actually, I don't think Rome had the concept yet). Christianity was a thing back then. In other words, Jesus of Nazareth taught certain specific things that he passed on to those who followed him, and told them to tell the world. And we know what those teachings were; they haven't been lost.  

In our time though almost any belief or teaching can be called -- and is called -- "christian" by those inclined to do so.This isn't a new phenomenon, though. Cyprian of Carthage grumbled about it just 200 years after Jesus' time, pointing out that it's rather important to get it right.

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How can a man say that he believes in Christ, who does not do what Christ commanded him to do? Or whence shall he attain to the reward of faith, who will not keep the faith of the commandment? He must of necessity waver and wander, and, caught away by a spirit of error, like dust which is shaken by the wind, be blown about; and he will make no advance in his walk towards salvation, because he does not keep the truth of the way of salvation.

Cyprian of Carthage (200 - 258)
“On the Unity of the Church,”

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.

"...A place in Your Paradise..."

Meditation for a Sunday Morning



(Here are two more of the early (AD 100 - 150) Christian hymns known as the Odes of Solomon that I posted for you last Sunday. Incidentally, they probably weren't credited to Solomon when they were written. Instead, they were usually bound together with a Jewish book called Psalms of Solomon and picked up the name by association.

In the first hymn the singer spreads their arms in worship to honor Christ's cross. In the catacombs Christians are frequently shown doing precisely this. The second ode celebrates a member of the Christian Movement entering Paradise after living a holy life. I like this one especially because it gives a window into how Jesus' early followers pictured the Paradise he had promised, [Gospel of Luke 23.43 & Book of Revelation 2.7])

Ode 27 

I extended my hands and hallowed my Lord, 

For the expansion of my hands is His sign. 

And my extension is the upright cross. 

 Hallelujah.

Ode 11 

My heart was pruned and its flower appeared, then grace sprang up in it, 

And my heart produced fruits for the Lord. 

For the Most High circumcised me by His Holy Spirit, then He uncovered my inward being towards Him, And filled me with His love. 

And His circumcising became my salvation, and I ran in the Way, in His peace, in the way of truth. 

From the beginning until the end I received His knowledge. 

And I was established upon the rock of truth, where He had set me. 

And speaking waters touched my lips from the fountain of the Lord generously. 

And so I drank and became intoxicated, from the living water that does not die. 

And my intoxication did not cause ignorance, but I abandoned vanity, 

And turned toward the Most High, my God, and was enriched by His favors. 

And I rejected the folly cast upon the earth, and stripped it off and cast it from me. 

And the Lord renewed me with His garment, and possessed me by His light. 

And from above He gave me immortal rest, and I became like the land that blossoms,

And rejoices in its fruits. 

And the Lord is like the sun upon the face of the land. 

My eyes were enlightened, and my face received the dew, 

And my breath was refreshed by the pleasant fragrance of the Lord. 

And He took me to His Paradise, wherein is the wealth of the Lord's pleasure. 

I beheld blooming and fruit-bearing trees, 

And self-grown was their crown. 

Their branches were sprouting and their fruits were shining. 

 From an immortal land were their roots. 

And a river of gladness was irrigating them, 

And round about them in the land of eternal life. 

Then I worshiped the Lord because of His magnificence. 

And I said, Blessed, O Lord, are they who are planted in Your land, 

And who have a place in Your Paradise, 

And who grow in the growth of Your trees, and have passed from darkness into light. 

Behold, all Your laborers are fair, they who work good works, 

And turn from wickedness to your pleasantness. 

For the pungent odor of the trees is changed in Your land, 

And everything becomes a remnant of Yourself. 

Blessed are the workers of Your waters, 

And eternal memorials of Your faithful servants. 

Indeed, there is much room in Your Paradise! 

And there is nothing in it which is barren, but everything is filled with fruit. 

Glory be to You, O God, the delight of Paradise for ever. 

Hallelujah.

"....I believed in the Lord's Messiah..."

Peter in the Catacombs (by Styka)

Meditation for a Sunday Morning

(Other than a few snatches of song in the New Testament (like this and this), the Odes of Solomon is probably our oldest collection of ancient Christian music. These lyrics were written between A.D. 100 - 150, probably closer to 100.

A Roman bureaucrat named Pliny who met up with some Christians at about the same time tells us that, "they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god," (Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96-97, "To Emperor Hadrian"). What were Jesus' early followers singing as they furtively gathered in the pre-dawn Sunday hours to worship? Probably something a little like these two songs.)

    Ode 29

        The Lord is my hope, I shall not be ashamed of Him.

        For according to His praise He made me, and according to His grace even so He gave to me.

        And according to His mercies He exalted me, and according to His great honor He lifted me up.

        And he caused me to ascend from the depths of Sheol, and from the mouth of death He drew me.

        And I humbled my enemies, and He justified me by His grace.

        For I believed in the Lord's Messiah, and considered that He is the Lord.

        And He revealed to me His sign, and He led me by His light.

        And He gave me the scepter of His power, that I might subdue the devices of the people, and humble the power of the mighty.

        To make war by His Word, and to take victory by His power.

        And the Lord overthrew my enemy by His Word, and he became like the dust 

which a breeze carries off.

        And I gave praise to the Most High, because He has magnified His servant

 and the son of His maidservant.

        Hallelujah. 

    

Ode 30

        Fill for yourselves water from the living fountain of the Lord, because it has been opened for you.

        And come all you thirsty and take a drink, and rest beside the fountain of the Lord.

        Because it is pleasing and sparkling, and perpetually refreshes the self.

        For much sweeter is its water than honey, and the honeycomb of bees is not to be compared with it;

        Because it flowed from the lips of the Lord, and it named from the heart of the Lord.

        And it came boundless and invisible, and until it was set in the middle they knew it not.

        Blessed are they who have drunk from it, and have refreshed themselves by it.

        

Hallelujah. 

The Man Who Won Ireland

Saint Patrick was never about green beer and corned beef. One of the Christian movement's boldest heroes, Patrick was by his own account a slave who escaped his harsh Irish owner only to be sent back by divine vision to evangelize his former captors.

And evangelize them he did, almost singlehandedly winning the nation's loyalty to Jesus by persuading them that the God of the Christians was much kinder than the bloodthirsty spirits they worshiped -- kind enough to die for them, rather than insisting they die for him. For more information on that exploit of Patrick's and other reasons we Irish are are so great, I heartily recommend Thomas Cahill's book How The Irish Saved Civilization.

Patrick was no myth but a real, historical man. On this St. Patrick's Day, between sips of green beer, take a listen to this reading of his autobiography.  Or read it for yourself here.

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The Breastplate of St. Patrick

I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me for ever,
By power of faith, Christ's Incarnation;
His baptism in the Jordan River;
His death on the cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb;
His riding up the heavenly way;
His coming at the day of doom;
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of the Cherubim;
The sweet 'Well done' in judgment hour;
The service of the Seraphim,
Confessors' faith, Apostles' word,
The Patriarchs' prayers, the Prophets' scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord,
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the starlit heaven,
The glorious sun's life-giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea,
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, his shield to ward,
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours
Against their fierce hostility,
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan's spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart's idolatry,
Against the wizard's evil craft,
Against the death-wound and the burning
The choking wave and the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the name,
The strong name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Three Short Videos: God Makes His Move

One of my core beliefs is that Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, but assumed to be trite, familiar, and boring and passed up for shinier things. As a result I'm a sucker for videos like these.

The comfortable, sanitized tale we all know of gentle Jesus in a manger walls us off from the shocking and rather scandalous story it truly is. Some of this site's Advent meditations will try to help us think about the scandal rather than the safe story. These three short videos also attempt to breach that wall by asking, "What if this had happened this month? What if God made his move today?"

The Great Announcement - Part 1

This way to Part 2! >>>

(Photo courtesy of Hannahmw)

God has a message for us, one that is so important and powerful that accepting it can transform the very nature of your existence -- not just in a nice metaphorical way, but a real, actual change. The Christian Movement was founded in large part to spread this message. I'm talking about the Gospel, of course. Anyone who's ever taken a cursory glance at Christianity knows it teaches that to "be saved" (whatever that means) you have to believe "the Gospel."

So what is the message? What does it say? That's what this occasional series will be about: What the Gospel is.

Probably the most common answer to the question runs something like this (which I'm taking from a site that named itself after this message): "So what is it? Here it is: There is a God, he loves you, and you can know him personally. That's it."

But, not to be a spoil sport or anything, that's not really it. 'It' is in there, it's part of the gospel and it's wonderful, but wonderful as it is it's almost a side issue to the main thing God wants said. It's not the "point" of the Gospel "spear."

Just as a side point think about this: Has it ever struck you as odd that the Gospel message we usually hear is, well, rather self-centered? I mean, stripped down to its bare bones, the Gospel is often presented as, "Avoid Hell. Believe this so you can go to Heaven when you die." Jesus and his greatest champions down through history did not do self-centered. His followers do self-sacrifice.  Does it make sense that the main point of God's message would be about getting something?

So let's take a look through Christianity's founding documents and see what Christ and his messengers said this "Gospel" (a.k.a. "Good News") was really about.

Where Are We?

How Messiahs are supposed to look (Judas
Maccabeus,  a Messiah from a century and a
half before Jesus)

First a bit of background.

The nation of Israel was set up by God so that, "All the nations of the earth will be blessed because of your descendants," (Genesis chapter 22 verse 18 CEB). But by the time Jesus showed up, they had fallen far from the heady days of of David and Solomon. For the last approximately 600 years they had been subject to other nations, the current one being Rome. Although the nation technically had some liberty the Romans kept them them on a very short leash and soldiers were everywhere.

But many Jews believed that their prophetic books promised them a "Messiah" to deliver them from their oppressors and make them an independent kingdom once again. There were a plethora of views on what exactly this Messiah would be like and do, but mainstream opinion included at least this much: That he would be a mighty warrior who would march into town, cleanse the Temple of pagan influences, defeat Israel's enemies, and set up the "Kingdom of God" (or "of Heaven," which was a respectful way to refer to God).

Meet Jesus

So now we encounter Jesus of Nazareth for the first time. He is proclaiming a message that he calls "The Gospel." How does it go? "After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee announcing God’s good news, saying, “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!” (Gospel of Mark chapter 1 verses 14-15, Common English Version).

Interesting. Not much like the Gospel I quoted at the beginning. I used the Common English Version  here instead of my usual translation so we could feel a little of the impact this would have had on the average oppressed 1st century Jew. It would have been rather incendiary!  Matthew's Gospel tells us that, "Jesus went throughout all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, (Gospel of Matthew chapter 4 verse 23).

In our next installments we'll follow this gospel message through Christ's resurrection, into the early Christian Movement and see where it takes us.

This way to Part 2! >>>

God’s Bias

At first blush one might think it’s almost blasphemy to suggest that God is biased. The default God of our current culture, should one believe in one at all, does not get involved much in the affairs of Earth. He played some part when the universe(s) began, perhaps "wound it up," but since then has sat back in his throne and let everything run it's course, declining to interfere for philosophical reasons. This view has been quite popular since Renaissance times.

But if God did have a preference, hypothetically speaking of course, many assume it would lean more toward the 'condemnation' side of things. You know, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God,” and all that...

Premise of History

'Adam Crouching' by
Paul Wayland Bartlett

Back when I first got interested in Jesus of Nazareth I sometimes watched a televangelist who was given to making startling, bombastic statements. Come to think of it, that describes most of the televangelists I saw.  This particular preacher held the belief that, because Jesus once predicted in Matthew's gospel (and nowhere else) that, "the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights," it meant he would be laying in the tomb for precisely 72 hours -- no more, no less. 

Evidence of how ancient Jewish people reckoned time counted for nothing with him. "If Jesus wasn't in the grave for exactly 72 hours," he would proclaim, "you have no Savior!"

J. R. Daniel Kirk, whose blog I read, wrote an article recently trying to answer a question that can sometimes elicit a similar response: Does St. Paul's explanation (found here and here) of how Jesus counteracts Adam's sin fall apart if it turns out an actual Adam never existed? Does the current scientific understanding of human origins, which has precious little room for Adam, Eve, and their garden, shoot holes in Paul's theology?

Such ideas are enough to move some people to exclaim, "If Adam and Eve never existed, then Christianity is nothing more than a fable!"

I have an idea about this. Maybe I'll post something about it at some point. But whatever the ultimate answer to this question is, I believe the key to understanding it probably lies in this section of Kirk's paper:

New Testament scholarship over the past half century has developed the insight that the first data point in Paul’s Christian theologizing was his understanding that the cross and resurrection formed the saving act of God. In the 1960s, Herman Ridderbos argued that this fundamental conviction becomes the great act of God by which all other acts and ideas are understood.5 The significance of this focus on Christ is that it ripples out in all directions: not only does Paul rethink the future in light of Jesus’ death and resurrection, but he also reinterprets what came before. Thus, Ridderbos concludes that “Paul’s whole doctrine of the world and man in sin . . . is only to be perceived in the light of his insight into the all-important redemptive event in Christ.”6 A decade later E. P. Sanders concurred, claiming that Paul reasons “from solution to plight.”7 Because Paul knows that God has provided the solution to the problem of human sin in the crucified and risen Christ, he therefore reassesses the place of the Law, in particular, in God’s saving story.

Both Ridderbos and Sanders have come to the same conclusion: what is a “given” for Paul is the saving event of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The other things he says, especially about sin, the Law, and eschatology, are reinterpretations that grow from the fundamental reality of the Christ event.

Not just for Paul but for all faithful early members of the Christian Movement, the crucifixion and resurrection  of Jesus, when the Kingdom of God began, when the universe's High King was crowned, is the lens through which all of history makes sense. We need to take Paul's perspective and look back through history -- especially scriptural history -- from inside the vortex of Christ's transformational work on the cross and in the tomb. That, I believe, is where the answer to this problem can most clearly be seen.