The Story #12: YHWH’s On the Move, So Leave Your Family… September 30, 2009
Posted by joejames in Allegience, Bible Study, Biblical Application, Biblical Interpretation, Church as People, Discipleship.Tags: Abraham, Faith, Genesis, Old Testament, Theology, YHWH
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What does a reader of scripture do with Genesis 12? You know… the part where YHWH calls Abraham to leave his family and go to the place God was preparing for Israel to grow as a set apart people. Troublesome situation don’t you think?
And this is the point. Allegiance. Do you get up and leave all you know, your family, your friends, your home, your land, your country, for YHWH?
And this YHWH whom the people of God follow is on the move. He is an alive and moving God. And he is also a gathering God. So as he lives and breathes and moves, he gathers a people for himself. So, naturally they live and breathe and move with him. And this takes… well, faith. Do we have faith to follow this God?
You never know where He may lead you.
Sinners September 30, 2009
Posted by joejames in Uncategorized.Tags: Sin
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What sort of sinner are you? The bad kind? The sort-of bad kind? The rarely-ever kind? The really bad kind? The worst kind? The “Chief of All Sinners” kind? Have you ever thought about that? You should. Because when non-Christians hear Christians talk about sin, this is what they hear: “We Christians are sinners, but not very bad ones. It’s secular society that is really in trouble. They are the worst kind of sinners. Me? I’m not too bad.”
And it dawns on me, that when our rhetoric smacks of this kind of arrogant-no-use-for-humility-or-confession kind of critique of people we are sent to love, that we are sinning. Ironic, huh?
And then I have this thought: just what kind of sinner does God want to save? The kind like you – not too bad, but sometimes bad? Or the really really bad ones?
Does God want to save the ones that seek him, but don’t know how? How about the ones that love him, but forget about him too much? How about the sinners that like to sin because it’s fun? Or what about the ones that teach others to sin? What about the ones that live for immorality? What about the ones that go past morals to theft and rape? What about the ones serving life terms in prison? Or how about the ones that have addictions to drugs, alcohol or sex? And what about the ones that want to hurt children? And what about the kind of people that murder for pleasure? Does God want to save the guy who uses his political influence to steal millions? Or how about the guy that runs the sex slave ring? What about the dude in charge of a South American drug cartel? Does God want to save the guy that wages war with nations? What about the corrupt preacher or priest that uses his position to abuse children? What about Charles Manson? Jefferey Dahmer? What about the terrorists? What about the Tali-ban? What about Sadaam Hussein? What about your political enemy? What about America’s political enemies? What about Israel’s political enemies (for you Zionsts out there)? What about Osama Bin Laden? What about guys who fly planes into buildings? What about guys who kill those guys? What about people who enslave people? What about racists? What about people who bomb abortion clinics? What about people who shoot abortion doctors?
What about you? Are you better? Do you need less grace, less mercy?
God save the sinners – God save the Christians!
The Story # 11: Babel Faith September 29, 2009
Posted by joejames in Allegience, American Christianity, Bible Study, Biblical Application, Biblical Interpretation, Christianity, Church, Church as People, Culture, Discipleship, Theology.add a comment
The tower of Babel is an interesting chapter in scripture wrapping up a sweeping view of human history from Adam to Noah. Sweeping is the operative word here. It would not be possible to offer a detailed account of such things, the way Luke does in his gospel. So the Babel narrative is rather typical of a new human condition, post-flood. Namely, that humanity is now about building an empire, where God is no longer needed.
God is not too happy about such projects. Israel really isn’t either. If any people group across history knows the evils of powerful imperial forces across history, it is the Jews. And as soon as Israel grows large enough to be deemed a “people group”, or what the Old Testament refers to as a “Nation” (this is not the Hebrew word from nation-state, or empire), they are oppressed by whatever new power-broker is on the block. Egypt, then Assyria, then Babylon, then Assyria, then Babylon… you get the picture.
The desire to build empires and amass power, influence and wealth was against God’s laws. This is best seen in I Samuel 8, when the seduction to “be like the other kingdom’s was too powerful”
4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead [a] us, such as all the other nations have.”
6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”
10 Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle [b] and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.”
19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”
21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD. 22 The LORD answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”
And this has been from the time of the Tower of Babel until now. We find faith in God to be too difficult and not tangible. So we opt for Babel Faith. Babel offers security through militaristic might. God’s security is merely hoped for, we assume. Babel offers tangible goods that we may consume at our every desire. God provides as needed. Babel takes control of history in tangible ways – ways that produce visible results. To believe that history belongs to God requires deep faith and a radical trusting lifestyle. That life is just too hard. Babel faith, it seems, is much easier.
The Story #10: In Poetic Praise To the God of the Flood September 25, 2009
Posted by joejames in Bible Study, Biblical Application, Biblical Interpretation, Discipleship, Prayer.Tags: Art, Genesis, Poetic Theology, Poetry, Psalm 104, Psalms, The Flood, Theology
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“The Story” is a 9 month series at the Southwest Church in Jonesboro, AR. We are reading the bible through, from beginning to end, as a church family. My series “The Story” here on this blog is nothing more than my wonderings and wanderings about that journey. Hope you will join the conversation
Psalm 104 seems strange to us on the surface. Praising God because of the Flood? Yet, He is worthy of our praise. And the Jews found deep expression through the artistic form of praise called “Psalm”. More than that, they found that praising every attribute of God is central to telling the whole story of God. It is no surprise, then, that they found artistic beauty in the naming the God of the Flood. The question becomes for us, “Can we learn and train ourselves in the language of the Psalms? Can we find expression to praise him when we may even doubt His goodness? Can we join voices with the saints from early Jewish community, to lift up the God who saw it fit to destroy a hurting and violent world, and begin again?” Let’s begin with Psalm 104:
1 Praise the LORD, O my soul.
O LORD my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with splendor and majesty.
2 He wraps himself in light as with a garment;
he stretches out the heavens like a tent
3 and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
and rides on the wings of the wind.
4 He makes winds his messengers, [a]
flames of fire his servants.
5 He set the earth on its foundations;
it can never be moved.
6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
7 But at your rebuke the waters fled,
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
8 they flowed over the mountains,
they went down into the valleys,
to the place you assigned for them.
9 You set a boundary they cannot cross;
never again will they cover the earth.
10 He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
it flows between the mountains.
11 They give water to all the beasts of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 The birds of the air nest by the waters;
they sing among the branches.
13 He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
the earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
14 He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for man to cultivate—
bringing forth food from the earth:
15 wine that gladdens the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine,
and bread that sustains his heart.
16 The trees of the LORD are well watered,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 There the birds make their nests;
the stork has its home in the pine trees.
18 The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
the crags are a refuge for the coneys. [b]
19 The moon marks off the seasons,
and the sun knows when to go down.
20 You bring darkness, it becomes night,
and all the beasts of the forest prowl.
21 The lions roar for their prey
and seek their food from God.
22 The sun rises, and they steal away;
they return and lie down in their dens.
23 Then man goes out to his work,
to his labor until evening.
24 How many are your works, O LORD!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
25 There is the sea, vast and spacious,
teeming with creatures beyond number—
living things both large and small.
26 There the ships go to and fro,
and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.
27 These all look to you
to give them their food at the proper time.
28 When you give it to them,
they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.
29 When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.
30 When you send your Spirit,
they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD rejoice in his works-
32 he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
who touches the mountains, and they smoke.
33 I will sing to the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
as I rejoice in the LORD.
35 But may sinners vanish from the earth
and the wicked be no more.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.
Praise the LORD. [c]
The Story #9: After the Flood September 25, 2009
Posted by joejames in Bible Study, Biblical Application, Biblical Interpretation, Sin, Theology.Tags: Baptism, Creation, Genesis, I Peter 3:18-22, New Creation, New Life, Resurrection, The Flood
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“The Story” is a 9 month series at the Southwest Church in Jonesboro, AR. We are reading the bible through, from beginning to end, as a church family. My series “The Story” here on this blog is nothing more than my wonderings and wanderings about that journey. Hope you will join the conversation
What do you do after the flood? After the waters have dissipated and the boat comes to rest, what do you do? After all the animals are safely ashore, and the people have stretched their sea-faring legs, where do you go?
I remember a similar feeling after my baptism, don’t you? I am clean. I am fresh. I am made new. I have a new start, a new beginning. I am a new Creation in Christ. I am now part of a new humanity. I am now part of a new reality. What was sin is now gone. What was in the past has been washed away. But what now? How do I begin again? What do I do within this new reality, this new humanity? What is my first order of business? What if I mess this thing up again?
And now we can identify with Noah. Here is a passage from I Peter 3:18-22 that helps us think through the connections between that flood and our baptism into the new humanity:
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
Story #8: One More Reflection on Creation September 25, 2009
Posted by joejames in Bible Study, Biblical Application, Biblical Interpretation.Tags: Creation, Discipleship, Frederick Aquino, Genesis, Gnosticism, Participating in Creation, Spirituality, Theology
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“The Story” is a 9 month series at the Southwest Church in Jonesboro, AR. We are reading the bible through, from beginning to end, as a church family. My series “The Story” here on this blog is nothing more than my wonderings and wanderings about that journey. Hope you will join the conversation
Frederick Aquino (boy, is that a theologians name or what) is a theologian and Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at Abilene Christian University. I was recently listening to a lecture he gave in 2007 called “Seeing Christ in Creation”.
Aquino began by talking about gnosticism. What a term. Something we really no little about. It’s like the Dead Sea Scrolls… we simply do not know much about them. But one strand of thought stands out pretty clearly to us in gnostic belief. Namely that “matter” is inherently evil. Gnostics believe that the world, the earth, the “creation”, and especially the body or “flesh” is inherently evil. This is clear in their assertions that the goal of Spirituality is to detach ourselves from what is “real” or tangible and just be “spiritual”. But such a disembodied spirituality is false. Jesus was real, and not inherently evil. The world is real, and not inherently evil.
This strange belief allowed gnostics to understand that God did not create the cosmos, because tangible “creation” was bad – and, they supposed, that God wouldn’t create something that is innately bad.
And I wonder, do we share this gnostic sentiment today? Do we think that all things tangible are bad? Do we dichotomize flesh and spirit, church and world, creation and heaven, as if they are so radically separated? They are not. In the creation narrative one thing is clear. God, out of his infinite love, created. And he chooses to participate in the goodness of such creation. Do we choose to participate with God the creator in such a tangible creation? Or do we suppose what he has created is somehow bad?
The Story #7: The Compassion of the Flood September 25, 2009
Posted by joejames in Bible Study, Biblical Application, Biblical Interpretation, Christianity, Evil, Love, Theology.Tags: Harsh God, Rebellion, The Flood, Wrath of God
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“The Story” is a 9 month series at the Southwest Church in Jonesboro, AR. We are reading the bible through, from beginning to end, as a church family. My series “The Story” here on this blog is nothing more than my wonderings and wanderings about that journey. Hope you will join the conversation
Popular opinion has it that the God of the Old Testament is a harsh and vengeful God, while the New Testament God is much kinder and gentler. This is not so. We can do ourselves well to take God at his word with regards to his character.
In Exodus 34:5-8 God gives 11 attributes about himself in 4 short verses: YHWH, El, the Merciful One, the Gracious One, the Longsuffering One, the Mighty One, the Kind and Loving One, the True One, the One who Preserves Kindness, the Forgiving One, and the Chastising One.
And even in his more “difficult” or “harsh” characteristics, God is love. For example, he “chastises” out of love. And he floods out of love.
But I don’t find myself a worthy advocate of such Old Testament interpretations. I simply know the God revealed in Jesus Christ, and that this is the same God of the Old Testament. So instead of expounding on this or that theological musing, I would rather ask a worthy question, or two… or three.
Have we considered that the flooding the earth and destroying mankind might have been the most compassionate thing God could have done for humanity? I mean… how bad was it? And do we focus on the disaster rather than the deliverance evident in the story of the flood? And does the story reveal that God is mean, or that he is a “re” creator? And is it plausible that the flood reveals that God is faithful to those who love him? And is it plausible that the destruction of the flood is his final act of love to put “rebellious” mankind out of it’s misery to begin again in faithfulness?
The Story #6: Creation, Communion & Caring September 25, 2009
Posted by joejames in Bible Study, Biblical Application, Biblical Interpretation, Christianity, Discipleship, Theology.Tags: Creation, Environmentalism, Genesis
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“The Story” is a 9 month series at the Southwest Church in Jonesboro, AR. We are reading the bible through, from beginning to end, as a church family. My series “The Story” here on this blog is nothing more than my wonderings and wanderings about that journey. Hope you will join the conversation
It’s worth mentioning that when God created, he did not only create mankind. He also provided careful attention to the habitation of mankind. Creation is good. It is now fallen, yet still good… and redeemable, just as you and I are redeemable.
It’s easy to draw meaningful conclusions from those early chapters in Genesis that communion with God and others was and is a vital part of God’s purposes for us. Yet it is easily overlooked that God is also concerned with our responsible care of Creation. Just as we care for one another, for nurturing relationship with the Triune God, also we give careful attention to our habitation. And this is part of God’s will.
It would be ironic for us to read that God gave us “dominion” over all living creatures and creation, and assume a role of “authority and power” over these things – as if God were saying, “Do as you please, it is all yours!” Elsewhere we recognize that none of it “belongs” to us. Rather, I think dominion is best seen as God saying “I am entrusting this to your care and responsibility” Now wouldn’t it be sad if we simply did not care for creation?
I know this issue is heavily politicized and touchy. But let those who trust the word of God say once and for all, “We don’t really care about the politics behind the issue. We just want to accept our responsibility and give careful attention to God’s good creation!”
The Story #5: Thoughts on Creation and Formation September 25, 2009
Posted by joejames in Art, Bible Study, Biblical Application, Biblical Interpretation, Discipleship.Tags: Creation, Formation, Genesis, God's Nature
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“The Story” is a 9 month series at the Southwest Church in Jonesboro, AR. We are reading the bible through, from beginning to end, as a church family. My series “The Story” here on this blog is nothing more than my wonderings and wanderings about that journey. Hope you will join the conversation
I have been intrigued for some time now about the idea of rethinking the theology of those first few chapters of Genesis. It seems we can easily get wrapped up in combative thinking – namely that we can start to think that the purpose of the Creation narrative is to disprove evolution, etc. However, I don’t think scripture allows us to slip so comfortably into these ways of reading. God seems to be totally disinterested in proving himself to anyone in these chapters. (And their is good reasons for being cautious about thinking we even CAN prove God to anyone!)
Rather, those opening texts seem to paint a picture of the nature and character of the God we worship. More specifically we see that our God is a Creator, and is thereby creative. I like to remind people that the creation narrative isn’t technically “about” the material world at all! At least that isn’t the main point! The main point is God!
And what do these introductory chapters say to us about that God? They artistically show that he is capable of creating and forming and shaping. And then re-creating and re-forming and re-shaping. I like to think of God as a “re” God. He is constantly, throughout the course of history, proved that he is more than capable to “re” do everything we undo.
And if we can still stand in amazement and wonderment at all that is in this fallen creation, is it not possible that this same God can work his “re” magic in us? Remake us? Reshape us? Reform us? He can! And he will. Because this is the nature and character of our God. The God of “re”! The Creator and Creative God.
The Story #4: The Sad Movement Away From Creation September 25, 2009
Posted by joejames in Bible Study, Biblical Application, Biblical Interpretation, Culture, Discipleship, Evil, Freedom.Tags: Creation, Genesis, Sin
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“The Story” is a 9 month series at the Southwest Church in Jonesboro, AR. We are reading the bible through, from beginning to end, as a church family. My series “The Story” here on this blog is nothing more than my wonderings and wanderings about that journey. Hope you will join the conversation
Perhaps the saddest passage in the bible is the story of Cain and Abel. It is the the first real movement that solidifies life outside God’s perfect intentions for Creation.
It’s easy to dwell on the details of what shook out in that story of the first murder (if indeed it is really the first murder). But the tragedy is much broader. The tragedy is rather typical of our own plight. The tragedy is that humanity has settled, rather comfortably, into life outside that pristine garden of love and community.
Murder happens to be the case, but is rather normalizing in this story. It comes into focus, in a ominous fashion, that this is somehow the new path of rebellion for humans. Now humans kill. For favor with God. Favor with others. Power. Control. Etc., etc., etc.
And what becomes increasingly more ominous is that we continue down the path of Cain still today. Moreover, we are rather good at killing in the name of God. And we know too much about the fear of being on the run as a marked people. Which begs the question… when will we begin to long for that original communion again? And if we are beginning to long for it now, when will we dare begin to return?
