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On September 1, 2019 By In Theology, Wisdom

The Mystery of Marriage

This is a homily delivered on the occasion of the wedding of my son, Joshua, and his wife, Naomi.

Paul, quoting Genesis 2.24 and then commenting on it says to the Ephesian church, “’For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

This is a great mystery. Our word “mystery” is brought over directly from Greek, but in its trek through history, it has picked up some connotations in English that Paul did not intend. When we hear the word “mystery,” we tend to think of that which is unknowable or incomprehensible; something shrouded behind an impenetrable veil that we could never hope to get our minds wrapped around. Though there are enigmatic elements in what Paul means when he speaks of mystery, that is not the totality of what he means.

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On August 25, 2019 By In Counseling/Piety, Theology

Plowing In Hope

The whole story of man can be told from the perspective of farming. We see these images popping up everywhere at the beginning of our history. God makes a world in which the land that emerges from the water becomes lush with vegetation. Then, after creating the man, he creates a special Garden for the man to work and to protect. Farming was man’s original task. These images were even evident in the relationship between the man and the woman. God told them to be fruitful and multiply, filling the earth. Man’s relationship with his wife would be like farming; it would be like tending and guarding the Garden. After the fall of man, God promises a seed who will come. God will make a new Garden that will be fruitful and will overcome the seed of the serpent, who are the thorns and thistles.

Creation and redemption can both be explained in terms of man’s vocation as a farmer. In giving man this vocation, God was also teaching man something about himself as well as leading him to meditate on how the entirety of his life is reflected in the world of agriculture. Man learns truths about himself and his relationships with God and others as he observes what goes on with land, seed, plants, and cultivation. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Remember, man was created out of the dust of the ground (Gen 2.7). This means that man, though distinct from the ground, nevertheless, corresponds to the ground in many ways. Man is the ground formed and filled with the breath of God. We are living, breathing plots of ground who are called to be farmers. This is why, not so incidentally, these parables of Jesus about seeds, soils, and sowers aren’t “far out-there” analogies. They are as natural as they can be. How much more basic can you get than going back to our original creation and understanding the correspondence between us and the ground from which we were birthed, so to speak? Jesus teases out the implications of this relationship in all of these agricultural parables, calling us to reflect upon our lives in light of what God is doing in this world in and through Christ Jesus and by the Spirit.

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On August 18, 2019 By In Counseling/Piety, Theology

Healing Forgiveness

The scene must have been shocking because of the reckless display of love. Simon, the Pharisee, invited Jesus along with many other guests to come and feast with him at his house. While reclining at the table, a nameless, well-known woman comes in to express her loving gratitude to Jesus who has forgiven her many sins. She is most likely a prostitute. The words that Luke records along with her actions all point to this. The “uncovering” and caressing of a man’s feet in that culture would have been considered a sexual advance. Simon indicates this when he speaks of the woman “touching” Jesus, a word that can have sexual connotations. Add to this the fact that she lets her hair down in public, an act that would have been reserved for a husband and wife in private—or a prostitute and a client—and we can be fairly certain that this “sinner” is a prostitute.

She has many sins. Jesus says so. She knows it. That’s why she came to Jesus for forgiveness. And she received it. The loving grace of forgiveness that she received drove her to reciprocate in expressions of love for her Lord. Jesus tells her in front of everyone that her sins are forgiven. He adds, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” (Lk 7.50).

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On August 11, 2019 By In Counseling/Piety, Theology

Stumbling Over Mercy

Jesus follows John the Baptizer as substance follows shadow, as antitype follows type. Jesus is the glorious fulfillment of John’s prophetic ministry in every way. John’s miraculous conception to a barren woman is announced by an angel. Jesus’ more glorious conception in the womb of a virgin is also announced by an angel. John’s birth is followed by the prophetic singing of his father, Zechariah. Jesus’ birth is followed by the angelic singing of the heavenly armies. Everything that happens in the life of John typifies what is to come in the life of Jesus. The difference is that what is fulfilled in Jesus will have greater glory than in the life of John.

This makes sense when you consider whose relationship John and Jesus reflect from the story of Scripture. John comes in the “spirit and power of Elijah” (Lk 1.17). Jesus says unequivocally that John is “Elijah who is to come,” that is, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi (cf. Mal 4.5; Mt 11.14). If John is Elijah, then who is Jesus? Elisha, the prophet anointed by Elijah who receives a double portion of Elijah’s spirit (2Kg 2.9). Jesus’ ministry is a continuation and glorious fulfillment of John’s life and ministry.

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On July 28, 2019 By In Theology

The Compassion of Jesus

What was left of her world was lying lifeless on a bier being carried out of the city to its resting place. She already lost her husband. Now her only son was dead. Besides the fact that she loved her son dearly, he was her means of protection and provision in her old age. Death had stolen from her everything but her own existence; all the joys of marriage and motherhood. She was left vulnerable to a leadership in Israel, who, even though they were supposed to help widows, devoured their houses (Lk 20.47).

As this widow moves with a great crowd through the city of Nain, mourning and carrying her son to his resting place with his father, Jesus and his entourage are drawing near the city gates. “Drawing near” certainly speaks of Jesus closing the geographical gap between himself and the city, but, with an understanding that later comes out that “God has visited his people” (Lk 7.16), the connotations of Luke have deep Scriptural echoes. “Drawing near” is what happens at the Temple through offerings. The worshiper draws near to God and God draws near to the worshiper. God comes to save and destroy; save his faithful people and destroy his and our enemies. God is drawing near to this city and, more specifically to this widow and her dead son, to do precisely that.

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On July 21, 2019 By In Family and Children, Theology, Worship

A Baptism Exhortation

But why do you call Me `Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say? “Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: “He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. “But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great. (Luke 6.43-49)

Prayer: Almighty God, who formed the earth out of water and through water by your word, who saved Noah and his family through water while destroying the wicked, who delivered your people Israel through the Sea while defeating Pharaoh and his armies, all of which are types of baptism into Christ Jesus, we pray that you will look mercifully upon Diana, saving her with your people while destroying sin and death. May she, throughout her life, relying upon the grace you give to her this day, continue to mortify sin so that at the last day she may participate in the resurrection of the just and reign with Christ Jesus eternally. Amen

At the end of what is commonly called “the Sermon on the Plain,” Jesus speaks a parable to the great crowd of disciples. This parable is a contrast between two different people. These people aren’t different in what they hear or in the fact that they will face floods in their lives. Both hear, and both will be assaulted by floods. The only difference between these two people is what they do with the words of Jesus. One person lives according to Jesus’ words, and the other one doesn’t.

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On July 12, 2019 By In Theology

Mark Driscoll’s Fall from the Doctrines of Grace

Mark Driscoll was once a respected pastor in Seattle where he commanded a massive church with his charismatic and calvinistic appeal. He once referred to himself as a five-point Calvinist and was often associated with Calvinists of every variety like John Piper, Matt Chandler, Doug Wilson and a host of others. His network of churches, Acts 29, was known for its grace emphasis drawn from the Canons of Dort as the five points of Calvinism.

Driscoll’s success was great and so also was his fall. Charges of plagiarism and abusive behavior took the bold Mark Driscoll to a sea of despair in a short period. Driscoll’s labors drew heavy criticism from many evangelical pastors but his unique skills in communicating to a largely pagan culture in Seattle provided him an invisibility cloak for some time. But that didn’t last forever. Driscoll fell from grace.

It took him some time to put himself together, and the ideal scenario, in my estimation, would have been for Driscoll to set his eyes upon Jesus, repent fully and find restoration to a local church to serve as a faithful layman and perhaps some form of role that would use his gifts under strong and capable leadership. But as in most cases, a man of Driscoll’s caliber are rarely content with regular church life unless they are in the spotlight of the church.

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On July 11, 2019 By In Books, Theology

A Response to Michael Heiser: “Yes, the Bible is All About Jesus!”

“Everything in the Bible isn’t about Jesus.” That’s the thesis of Michael Heiser’s piece at Logos Talk. As examples, he argues that the “procedures for diagnosing and treating leprosy” and the laws “forbidding people who’ve had sex or lost blood from entering sacred space” aren’t about Jesus.” He goes so far as to make the bold assertion that “No Israelite would have thought of a messianic deliverer when reading these or many other passages.” Heiser concludes his essay with his central concern that “While the drama of the biblical epic ultimately leads to Jesus, he isn’t the ultimate focal point of every passage.”

It appears to me that Heiser is particularly concerned about developing a hermeneutic that leaves the interpreter off the hook when it comes to studying the Bible or to make connections to Jesus that simply aren’t there.

I appreciate Heiser’s motivations but believe that his approach is misguided and ultimately can do greater damage to Bible interpreters everywhere. I would begin by stating that Heiser’s approach to the topic is fairly minimalistic. He asserts that unless the New Testament alludes to Old Testament presenting Jesus as the messianic deliver and fulfillment, therefore, Jesus must not be read into such ancient texts. This minimalistic approach actually discourages the reader and forces them to put boundaries in the text that do not exist. But the Holy Spirit is a creative God who moves and lives in the narratives of the Bible and who offers a rich array of harmonious themes throughout. Themes of marriage, war, sea, dry land, and creatures are already presented to us in the early chapters of the Bible to prepare us for all its luxurious repetitions throughout the rest of the Bible. Indeed the Word himself appears in the creation narrative which leads to the question: “How can the One in whom all things cohere not be found in some manner in the stories, laws, and descriptions of the Bible?”

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On July 7, 2019 By In Counseling/Piety, Theology, Wisdom

Merciful Coals of Fire

“If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For so you will heap coals of fire on his head, And Yahweh will reward you.” (Prov 25.21-22; cf. also Rom 12.20).

Since the fall, a line of antithesis has been drawn between the serpent and his seed and the woman and her seed (Gen 3.15). We are mortal enemies. We each desire the other’s destruction, though destruction doesn’t mean exactly the same on both sides of the line. The serpent and his seed desire and work toward the annihilation of God and his image; utter destruction. The woman and her seed desire and work toward expulsion or conversion of the serpent’s seed.

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On June 29, 2019 By In Counseling/Piety, Culture, Theology

Gay Christian?

One of the first acts of dominion Adam had was naming the animals. That process involved recognizing certain God-created qualities about the animals and then giving them a name that corresponded to those qualities. Naming was an exercise of authority that set animals in their proper relationships with one another and the man. Names set boundaries, giving the animals and man their respective cultures in which to live. Adam recognized this from the beginning as he was naming all of the animals and realized that among them there was no helper comparable to him. It is not until God creates Eve from Adam’s side that he names her with a name that corresponds to his own. She is ‘issha because she was taken out of ‘ish (Gen 2.23). Indeed, male and female are ‘adam (Gen 1.27).

Names tells us who we are. They tell us our cultural boundaries at macro and micro levels. As humans (or “man”) our name is “image of God.” That name sets the boundaries of our relationship to God, to one another, and the world around us. “Image of God” establishes the God-ordained culture in which we are to live and which we are to cultivate.

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