Some thoughts on mission (especially cross-cultural mission) - Part 2

This post continues from my last post on my thoughts on mission (which can be found here.)

Proclamation
The proclamation of the gospel is found throughout the narratives in the Gospels and Acts. Cross-cultural mission (and mission in general) can especially be found in Acts. But I think we need to note the content of the gospel message. The gospel message is multifaceted. Here I will list a few Scriptures. In Athens, Paul says,

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.   (Acts 17:24-25; emphasis added)

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31; emphasis added)

Later in Acts Paul recalls what Jesus said to him,

‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me.  I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ (Acts 26:15b-18; emphasis added)

Paul, who was Jewish, was sent to the Gentiles and Jews alike to proclaim the good news of Jesus. Note that it is a message of the lordship of the Creator God, God's judgment with justice, repentance, forgiveness of sins, and, most importantly, the death and resurrection of Christ. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4,

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures...

Here I want to point out a few things about the proclamation of the gospel.

(1) My former religion was a mixture of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and ancestral worship. One of the most significant Christian experiences for me is the fact that I am a sinner and that by God's grace my sins are forgiven. To me, Jesus is my Lord, my King and my Saviour. The lordship of Christ, I think, should be at the heart of our proclamation.

(2) The gospel message contains many elements, and should never be reduced to a simple formula. For example, the preaching of the gospel is not about "a ticket to heaven". In fact, even a casual look at the Bible passages cited above will show that the New Testament Christians did not reduce the gospel to "a ticket to heaven".

(3) In the Four Gospels we find that Jesus' call is that people may follow him as their Lord and King. The gospel is about the call to follow the crucified Christ and risen Lord - that is, the call to discipleship. And as Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, discipleship is about costly grace, not cheap grace. (Click here for my post about that.) The fact that proclamation of the gospel is about discipleship is evidenced by the so-called Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, where Jesus asked his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. This is not about an intellectual understanding of some formulas to get a ticket to heaven, but about proclaiming the crucified Christ and risen Lord so that people will follow his self-giving way of life.

(4) Michael Pahl speaks of our call to proclaim and live out the resurrection of the crucified Christ, and that "the church is called to enact God's program of creation renewal in this age in anticipation of the fulfillment of the renewal of creation in the age to come." I have previously blogged on what Pahl says in his book From Resurrection to New Creation (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2010). I think it is really worth reading. Click here for the blog post.

(5) It is absolutely important is that we do not see ourselves as superior to those who do not know Jesus. Christians are fellow sinners who need the grace of God for salvation. We have come to know Christ because of God's grace, not our righteousness. We are to proclaim the gospel with humility, and with sincere love for those who are living in darkness.

(To be continued.)

Community: Problem solving or problem sharing? Or solidarity?

In my last post I cited some great points made by Tim Gombis. Gombis says that sometimes churches don't quite live as communities of the cross: "They imagine that the problem is the problem.  After all, churches aren’t supposed to have problems or challenges, just as individual Christians are supposed to have perfect lives.  If there’s something wrong, then there’s something wrong!"

I have some further thoughts on this.

Because of my work and ministry I have been involved in quite a few Christian communities and churches. I am concerned when the more vulnerable members of those communities are hurt or going through a difficult time. For others, these vulnerable members are the ones who have “problems”. Often sincere and committed Christians try to help them by their "problem-solving" skills, as if there are always formulas to tackle the “problems” in people’s lives. Sometimes this works. But I would prefer problem-sharing rather than problem-solving (if we insist on using the term “problem”). If we stand in solidarity with those who are hurting and those going through hard times, and if the first thing we do is to listen and share their pain, then we are on a journey together to deal with the issues that causes the hurt and pain.

I think that’s what Jesus did when he was on earth. He walked life’s journeys with his fellow human beings. He showed us what it means to be truly human – that is, someone who is willing to share the pain, suffering and injustice in this world. Yes, he taught us how to live wisely. Yes, he taught us to pray. Yes, he spoke of God's judgment and God’s love. And so should we teach others. But his message is about God’s upside-down kingdom (or right-way-up kingdom, from his perspective). It is about “those who are first will be last, and those who are last will be first”. It is about self-giving and solidarity with the poor and oppressed. I think this is where the apostle Paul gets it right – God’s wisdom is found in the crucified Christ. And it is in the crucified Christ and risen Lord that we see God's power manifest.

What is "social justice"? Some thoughts from my friends

Someone asked me recently for a definition of "social justice". I actually found it hard to answer her question, and so I asked some friends to help me. Here are suggestions from them. I think they are insightful.

"One of the first things that comes to my mind is that it isn't about issues, but about the breaking through of God's justice into a social/communal/corporate setting, as opposed to remaining an element of personal salvation."

"Social Justice is about seeking God's perspective on social issues and working for change so that our world (and the issues we face) look more and more like God's will."

"I would say that social justice is the setting right of all relationships in the world."

"Social justice is an expression of God's love, about the last being first and the first being last. It is about the breaking in of God's kingdom on earth."

"I also see social justice inseparably linked to hope. While it is the breaking in of God's kingdom on earth, it also anticipates the future new creation, when there will be no more tears and no more pain and the old order of things has passed away. Social justice is God's order of things, it is the restoration of creation, it is transformation, and therefore it is inherently part of salvation."

"I would prefer to talk about transformation, which includes things like social justice, personal transformation of the human heart (from selfishness to self-giving, from harbouring personal resentments to having an attitude of forgiveness etc) and care for the earth."

As for me, I think one reason why it's hard to define "social justice" is that the Bible does not have the word “social justice”. Instead, the New Testament uses the word dikaiosunē, which refers to a range of notions including righteousness and justice. It seems to me that justice, according to the biblical worldview, does not separate social justice and the justice of God. The Bible speaks of a God who is righteous, justice, loving and always faithful to his covenant with his people. And this God wants his people to do what is right, just and loving; and they are to do so not only as individuals but also communally in their inter-personal relationships. Indeed, God wants us to act justice, show mercy and walk humbly with him in all spheres of life.

Ultimately, if we understand that our Christian life is about following Christ and his self-giving way of life, then walking humbly with God is about living out a cross-shaped life as disciples of Jesus.

If we understand justice from a biblical perspective, then what we call “social justice” is in fact an integral part of discipleship. It is about how we may be faithful people of God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer on cheap grace and costly grace

It seems that everyone is talking about Dietrich Bonhoeffer at the moment. Here are a few famous Bonhoeffer quotes I've found on the Internet.

On cheap grace

"Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian 'conception' of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins. The Church which holds the correct doctrine of grace has, it is supposed, ipso facto a part in that grace. In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God." (emphasis added)

"Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before."

"Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."

On costly grace

"Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has... It is the kingly rule of Christ,..., it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him."

"Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'ye were bought at a price,' and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God."

"Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a world of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: 'My yoke is easy and my burden is light.'"

Some thoughts on mission (especially cross-cultural mission) - Part 1

Recently I have been thinking about my own view of mission. There are many who know much more than I, and so I don't think the following is new. But I feel that I need to formulate my view on mission in light of the Scripture and experience. Here are some initial thoughts.

Scripture
Much can be said here. But I will only mention the fact that Paul - the Jewish Christian - is an apostle to the Gentiles. In Romans we find that Paul envisions a Jew-Gentile love-centred community that seeks to follow Jesus. This community is in Christ through Jesus' atoning sacrifice, and seeks to embody Christ's self-giving life through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Paul sees this as God's saving purpose and his role is to proclaim this good news ("good news" is of course the meaning of the Greek word for "gospel") - first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles.

Christ's identification with humanity
The New Testament speaks of a God who sent his Son to our world. It talks about Christ's participation in frail humanity and suffered death as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (not least in Romans 8:3-4). There is a strong sense in which the followers of Jesus are to follow his way of self-giving life. The mission of God consists in him sending his Son to our world to accomplish his saving purpose. The vocation of his followers is to participate in his saving purpose by embodying Christ's way of life. In the context of cross-cultural mission, the messengers of the good news will do well if they enter the culture of their audience, live among them and remain there long-term, learn their language and participate in their sorrow and joy. Through this participatory approach, God's heralds of the gospel reflect God's character and love through their deeds and words. Through God's Spirit the gospel is proclaimed through his Presence in the Christ-followers.

Not everyone is called to engage in long-term cross-cultural mission. But we are all called to participate in God's saving purpose by embodying Christ's self-giving way of life in our own contexts and through our solidarity with those who engage in long-term cross-cultural mission.

(Click here for Part 2 on my thoughts on mission)

Reflection: Two recent movies, discipleship, justice for the oppressed

Two recent movies reflect elements of what I have been thinking in my studies and in my work in an overseas aid and development Christian organisation. Of course different people have different takes on the movies. But here are my reflections.

(1) Movie: Of Gods and Men

Based on a true story, this movie is about the choices made by a group of monks in a monastery in Algeria when their lives were threatened. I think true discipleship is ultimately about following Christ's sacrificial way of life, which is expressed in our solidarity with the community, not least those who are vulnerable and powerless. This is no abstract theology or theory, but a call to be authentic followers of Jesus.

Click here for a review from Guardian, UK.

(2) Movie: Oranges and Sunshine

This movie is based on true events that happened in the 1950s and 1960s, in which thousands of children were transported to Australia from England wrongfully. I think this movies highlights the fact that we need to recognise the fact that injustice and oppression is often embedded in a web of systemic social and individual sins. There are political, social and even religious systems and structures that oppress the vulnerable in our world. We need to stand in solidarity with those who suffer from injustice because of their powerlessness. Unfortunately Christians often are unaware of this, despite the fact that the Bible speaks of this in the Prophets (not least Isaiah, Amos, Micah, Jeremiah, Zechariah) and in Jesus' own ministry.
 
Click here for a review from ABC At the Movies.

Putting the above two reflections together, I think the church is called to participate in Christ's life, suffering, death and resurrection, just as he participated in human frailty in order to accomplish his atoning sacrifice for our sins and his redemption for his entire creation. We are to proclaim this Christ to all humankind - through our words and daily life - so that people may have hope and shalom through faith in Christ Jesus.

Some good quotes about the poor, the Bible, faith and discipleship (Fee, Gombis, Pahl, Barth, Willitts)

Some quotes I collected recently:

(1) Something about the Letter of James and the poor

"James is decidedly - as in the whole of Scripture - on the side of the poor. The rich are consistently censured and judged, not because of their wealth per se, but because it has caused them to live without taking God into account and thus to abuse the lowly ones for whom God cares." Gordon Fee, in Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to read the Bible Book by Book (Grand Rapid: Zondervan, 2002), page 399.

(2) On the "scandal of the empty tomb", Michael Pahl says, "To put this simply, everyone knows that dead people do not come back from the dead, let alone to some transformed human existence, but that's precisely the point of the Christian claim that God raised Jesus from the dead - the utterly impossible has in fact occurred. And the impossible has now become the norm, the standard by which all else is measured." Michael Pahl, From the Resurrection to New Creation (Eugene: Cascade, 2010), page 12.

(3) "God is as much present in the scientifically and historically explainable as he is in that which has not yet been explained. Nor should we expect to see God only in the "miraculous," or in the triumphs of life. God is as much present in the mundane and in life's tragedies as he is in those experiences which are typically seen as the more likely demonstrations of divine activity." Michael Pahl, From the Resurrection to New Creation (Eugene: Cascade, 2010), page 70.

(4) Two quotes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (via Joel Willitts)

True believers must participate in the suffering of Christ. This call to self-denial and suffering is the “hard word of grace”. "Just as Christ is only Christ as one who suffers and is rejected, so a disciple is a disciple only in suffering and being rejected, thereby participating in crucifixion." "Suffering becomes the identifying mark of a follower of Christ." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer via Joel Willitts) (Click here for Willitts' post)

"The call to discipleship is a commitment solely to the person of Jesus . . . It is beyond enmity between law and gospel. Christ calls; the disciple follows. That is grace and commandment in one." (Bonhoeffer via Joel Willitts)

(5) "The social dynamics of celebrity culture are now so familiar that they no longer shock us... I...  have thought often about the social and cultural forces that tempt us to focus on image-maintenance.  These dynamics make us inauthentic and lead to shallow and manipulative relationships.  Because we want others to be impressed with us, we’re tempted to craft public images that mask our failures and weaknesses and trumpet our strengths." Tim Gombis - Click here for Gombis' blog post.

(6) Quotes of Karl Barth (via Tim Gombis)

“God can be known only when those of the highest rank regard suffering with the whole social order of their age and bearing its heavy burden as the noblest achievement of which they are capable; when the rich in spirit think nothing of their wealth—not even in order to share it—but themselves become poor and the brothers of the poor..." (Karl Barth via Tim Gombis - Click here for Gombis' blog post)

A paradox of the cruciform God: “God gives life only through death.” (Karl Barth via Tim Gombis - click here for Gombis' blog post)

A paradox of the cross: “The cross is the bridge which creates a chasm and the promise which sounds a warning” (Karl Barth via Tim Gombis - click here for Gombis' blog post)

(7) "I am because we are, since we are, therefore I am." (John S Mbiti, African scholar) No individualistic religion there.

Idolary (Christopher Wright; Tim Keller; Brian Rosner; Greg Beale)

Jason Hood has written an article in Christianity Today entitled, Idolatry, the Gospel, and the Imitation of God: Why evangelicals have taken such an interest in idols. (Click here to view the whole article.)

With the help of the insights from Christopher J. H. Wright, Tim Keller, Brian Rosner and Greg Beale, Hood came up with some good stuff in his article. Here are some excerpts.

"Idolatry is dangerous because it almost always involves the offer of good things as substitutes for God. Wright highlights three pairs of idols: power and pride, success and popularity, and wealth and greed. Keller similarly highlights money, sex, and power, noting that even churches and efforts in ministry can become idols."

"Closer to home geographically, ideologically, and temporally, we find the same effect. The most famous statue in the United States is the Statue of Liberty. Many Americans are unaware that the image atop the base is the Roman goddess Libertas. Now we may not worship this goddess in the traditional manner. But it is not too much to say that our radical allegiance to self and independence is idolatrous worship... And if we worship freedom, we may become the personification of Libertas, unable to experience healthy dependence on God and others, even as others find they cannot depend on us. Freedom can ironically enslave us, crippling our service to God and others."

"We begin to destroy the power of idols by believing the good news of all that God offers his broken human images in the person and work of his Son. In Christ we receive a new adopted identity as God's beloved children who are assured of acceptance, forgiveness, resurrection life, and a global inheritance. This identity is available apart from success, popularity, creativity, and wealth. God gives redemption despite our failure, poverty, and spiritual barrenness. He holds out proof of his love in the bloody death of Jesus for sinners, in his life-giving resurrection, and in the empowering gift of the Spirit of adoption."

"Beale's thesis notes the possibility of "becoming what we worship" for ill and for good. "All of us are imitators and there is no neutrality," says Beale. "We are either being conformed to an idol of the world or to God." In the final chapters of his book, Beale begins to explore this neglected strand of biblical teaching: those who worship the God of Israel become like him, increasingly fulfilling their destiny as they conform to the righteousness and holiness of God and the Son who is his perfect image (Matt. 5:48; Rom. 8:29; Eph. 4:23–24; 4:32–5:2; Col. 3:5–10)."

"Repenting of idolatry involves actual turning, a change of one's mind and service away from idols and toward the worship and imitation of the Father and Son.Wright summarized the task in his reflections on Lausanne 2010: "Few things can be more important for the mission of the Church of Jesus Christ than that those who claim his name should be like him, by taking up their cross, denying themselves, and following him in the paths of humility, love, integrity, generosity, and servanthood.""

Let us take up the cross and follow Christ!

How one may participate in Christ's glory

Just found these great words in Ernst Kasemann's commentary on Romans.

"For Paul too the Spirit is the miraculous power of the heavenly world which breaks into the earthly sphere to fashion a new creature... Then he confronts them them with the theology of the cross and reminds them that the Spirit who makes Christ present on earth is the very one who imposes on them a pilgrim theology... Only he who participates on earth in the passion of the Kyrios [the Lord] will participate in his glory." (page 229; Kasemann is commenting on Romans 8:17; emphasis added)

"Jesus walked among us in Cape Town" by Christopher Wright

I found a great article written by Christopher Wright about his reflections on the Third Lausanne Congress in Cape Town, in October 2010.

Click here to read the whole article. Here are two excerpts.

The body of Christ was very real in its multi­cultural, multi-coloured human skin. But more than that, some of these sisters and brothers came from countries where Christians are a tiny, suffering minority, where they have to meet in small, hidden groups, or to keep a very low profile, with no public freedom to sing and proclaim the name of the Lord Jesus.

We sought to listen to the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in his mercy, through his Holy Spirit, Christ spoke to his listening people. Through the many voices of Bible exposition, plenary addresses, and group discussion, two repeated themes were heard in a wide variety of formats:

* The need for radical obedient discipleship, leading to maturity, to growth in depth as well as growth in numbers,
* The need for radical cross-centred reconciliation, leading to unity, to growth in love as well as growth in faith and hope.

Both discipleship and reconciliation are indispensable to our mission. By contrast, we lament the scandal of the shallowness of so much Christian profession worldwide, and the scandal of our dividedness and lack of love. We acknowledge that both are seriously damaging to our witness to the gospel.

The decline of Bible literacy

Here is my new article entitled The Decline of Bible Literacy.

Some excerpts below.

A research report published by the Evangelical Alliance in the UK (EAUK) just came out. It mentions two interesting trends about Christians in the 16-24 age group. First, they are “less likely to strongly agree that the Bible has supreme authority in guiding their beliefs, views and behaviour.” Second, they are “less likely to pray or read (or listen to) the Bible every day.”

On the one hand, there has been an overemphasis on the intellect. Pastors at my age (the 40-something age group) often complain that their theological training was loaded with a highly intellectual analysis of the Scripture, which is not useful in ministry.

On the other hand, there are those who habitually use the Bible out of context. Their teaching is characterised by the use of proof-texts and the neglect of the literary, social and historical context of the Biblical texts.

Maybe our attempt to make sense of the Christian faith in the emerging culture has led us to neglect the basics, including the simple but all-important discipline of reading the Scripture devotionally - both individually and as a community?

The Bible is no dry theology textbook. It is a book consisting of stories easily accessible to everyone – both the educated and unlearned.

A life of sacrifice and witness to Christ

I read an article about the life and witness of a Christian in Asia. It's the type of authentic Christianity that should challenge all of us.

Here is an excerpt.

"After his [her husband's] arrest, Alice moved out... with their six children and her mother-in-law. As they had lived by faith and the church was now closed, she went through the most difficult six months of her life. All they could afford was porridge. They slept on planks laid over bricks as a make-shift bed. Fellow Christians were too frightened to help them. She found work on a construction site paying 80 fen a day (less than US$0.20). Her children were cruelly treated at school... the whole family suffered further humiliation. For six months she... was put under intense pressure to renounce her faith and divorce her husband. At night she sought the Lord with tears. Finally, she was found innocent of all charges. Providentially, God supplied the family’s needs through the sacrificial giving of a few devoted believers. Even in her darkest hour she never stopped giving one tenth of her income to the Lord."

Click here for the whole article.

God triumphs through the death of Christ, he wins by losing (Timothy Gombis)

Here is what Timothy G. Gombis says regarding Ephesians 3:1-14. I found this in an interview with him (in this blog) about his book The Drama of Ephesians. I think this sounds really good.

This was the most powerfully transformative passage for me personally. It is so utterly counter-cultural and counter-intuitive. We imagine that we will succeed personally and professionally through self-assertion and will advance in our careers (or in ministry!) through power-accumulation and the exercise of power over others.

But throughout Ephesians (and everywhere in Paul), the manner in which God triumphs in Christ sets the normative pattern for Christian discipleship. God triumphs through the death of Christ, he wins by losing. The victory of the powers was their defeat and the defeat of Christ was his victory. Paul draws the clear implication that if God triumphs through the cross, then cruciformity thoroughly shapes Christian communities and Christian lives.

I believe this is what Paul is getting at in Ephesians 3. His imprisonment is not a set-back, but the perfect place for God to magnify his triumph over the powers. God builds his church through the preaching of this shamed prisoner, this ‘least of all the saints’, rather than through someone with loads of social or political capital. For Paul, this makes perfect cruciform sense, and it is one of a number of passages that sets the normative ethical pattern for Christian existence.

How do we model that? By cultivating postures of servant-hood and humility in relationships, never exercising power over others nor relating manipulatively. For those who are well-practiced in (self-)destructive relational modes, our repentance is a bit more painful! But the way of life is the way of the cross.

Click here for the entire interview. It is worth reading.

Self-improvement, dreams, or following Jesus?

I have long been thinking what life is about for Christians. Where is the line between achieving our own dreams and doing God's will? How can we be sure that we are not trying to fulfil our own desires? Are we sure that, as we seek to fulfil our dreams, we do not in the process lose sight of God's kingdom and his purposes for his creation? I think the answer lies in the Cross.

Here is something Tom Wright says in his book, Virtue Reborn (or otherwise called After you believe), page 100.

Jesus's call to follow him, to discover in the present time the habits of life which point forward to the coming kingdom and already, in a measure, share in its life, only makes sense when it is couched the terms made famous by Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "Come and die". Jesus didn't say, as do some modern evangelists, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." Nor did he say, "I accept you as you are, so you can now happily do whatever comes naturally." He said, "If you want to become my followers, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me" (Mark 8.34). He spoke of losing one's life in order to gain it, as opposed to clinging to it and so losing it He spoke of this in direct relation to himself and his own forthcoming humiliation and death, followed by resurrection and exaltation. Exactly in line with the Beatitudes, he was describing, and inviting his followers to enter, an upside-down world, an inside-out world, a world where all the things people normally assume about human flourishing, including human virtue, are set aside and a new order is established. (Emphasis added)

Jesus would have said, of course, that it's the present world that is upside down and inside out. He was coming to put it the right way up, the right way out. That shift of perception is the challenge of the gospel he preached and lived, and for which he died.

What this means is that the normal standards, even the standards of virtue itself, are challenged at their core. No longer is the good life to be a matter of human beings glimpsing the goal of "happiness" in which they will become complete, and then setting about a program of self-improvement by which they might begin to make that goal a reality. They are summoned to follow a leader whose eventual goal is indeed a world of blessing beyond bounds, but whose immediate goal, the only possible route to that eventual one, is a horrible and shameful death. And the reason for this radical difference is not obscure. It is that Jesus's diagnosis of the problem goes far deeper than that of any ancient Greek philosopher. (Emphasis added)

Reflection: Trusting God for his provision and fulfilling God's call

When I was 29 I had a good career. I had a BSc (Hons), an MSc, and years of experience in my profession. But then God called me to ministry. After heaps of prayer I left my career at the age of 30 to go to Bible college. The following years were very difficult financially and emotionally, and eventually I stopped working as a pastor, largely because of health reasons and because I wanted to finish my Masters in theology. But I remember that at the end of those years I could say that God never disappointed us financially. Yes, it was very difficult to "walk by faith", so to speak, and trust God for his provision - without any fund raising and without asking people for money. But it's worth it.

We experienced miracle after miracle of financial provision, even though we needed to live on a very tight budget (and continue to do so for many years afterwards). It's an amazing experience.
What I have learned from the experience is that if God has asked us to do something he will provide all our needs. I have to admit that I am a man of little faith - yes, I still am, and very much so. But once you have experienced God's miraculous supplies you have learned something about God's faithfulness.

Will I do it again? Only to the degree that God enables me, and only if I am very sure that God has asked me to do so. Now I am older - I know what my limitations are and how much I can endure. I'll be very careful in making any decision of that kind. But at the same time God's calling is still fresh and real. I consider that I am still in the process of fulfilling that call.

To everyone who wants to do God's will, I encourage you to trust in God's faithfulness. He who has called you to follow him is faithful.

What the ministry of reconciliation requires - living like Jesus

Recently I read the following about 2 Corinthians from Rediscovering Paul (by David B Capes, Rodney Reeves and E Randolph Richards). I think it really captures some key moments of this great letter of Paul. This is one of those letters that we hear less and less these days. But we are doing ourselves a disservice if we don't read this letter, because there is so much in this letter about how we can be authentic followers of Jesus.

"According to Paul, his converts had failed to recognize what the ministry of reconciliation required. It meant "carrying in the body the death of Jesus" (2 Cor 4:10), and "walk[ing] by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor 5:7), "regard[ing] no one from a human point of view" (2 Cor 5:16) and living as "having nothing, and yet possessing everything" (2 Cor 6:10). In other words, it meant living like Jesus ("though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich," 2 Cor 8:9), and emulating Paul ("as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments," 2 Cor 6:4-5). The Corinthians needed to learn what it meant to become living sacrifices for the welfare of others. This is why the paradox of Christian existence is the leading motif of 2 Corinthians: "for whenever I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor 12:10). The strength-in-weakness theme pervades the entire letter in a variety of apparent contradictions, including joy in suffering, generosity in poverty and life in death. For Paul the theological basis for this paradox is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. In weakness and suffering Jesus descended into death; in power and joy God raised him from the dead. Therefore, weakness is strength, death is life, and humiliation is glory." (pages 160-1)

Trusting in God for financial provision in an old-fashioned way

The global financial crisis last year was a major challenge for most of us. The organisation I work in, for example, took very strong measures to cut back on expenses in order to keep as many staff as possible.

But I know of one well-known mission agency that recorded a 100% financial support for their missionaries. And they managed to do that without fund-raising effort and without believing in any form of prosperity doctrine. They have always been trusting God for his supply in the old-fashioned way. That is, they don't deliberately ask people for money. They use sound financial management. They pray. It still works even in the 21st century, because God hasn't changed.

I am not opposed to fund raising or similar measures. But sometimes I wonder whether we trust ourselves more than trusting in God. Well, indeed it is a good question for myself. Do I trust God enough for everything in my life?

"The Limits of Incarnational Models" by Tim Chester

Here are three posts I found in Tim Chester's blog on "The Limits of Incarnational Models".

I really like the idea of following Christ by being with the poor and marginalised, and I appreciate those who try to do so in some of the poorest areas in Melbourne and the world. But Chester's posts are interesting and worth reading.

Click here for the 1st post: "The Triumph of the Many over the One".
Click here for the 2nd post: "Embodiment and Incarnation".
Click here for the 3rd post: "The Need for a Whole Gospel Approach".

Gorman on Ethics, the Church's Mission, Cruciformity

More quotes from Michael Gorman's Reading Paul. Personally, I like Gorman's idea of story. That is, our life is shaped by Christ's story, and our life is to be a living story for the world to see. These stories all centre on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Christian ethics is the resurrection power of the justifying, cruciform, three-in-one God expressing itself as the sign of the cross in daily life. (p. 130)

[The church's] mission... is to be a living commentary on the gospel it professes, the story of the Lord (Jesus) in whom the church exists and who lives within the assembly. (See especially Phil 2:1-15.)... This countercultural community is not produced by human effort, nor does it occur to perfection overnight; it is a process of divine activity and communal and personal transformation (e.g. Rom 12:1-2; 1 Thess 3:11-13; 5:23-28). To be holy is to be different, different from those outside the church and different from the way we used to be, changed from what was "then" to what is "now" (Gal 4:8-9;1 Cor 6:9-11; Eph 2:1-6; Col 3:1-7). (p. 134)

Cruciformity is cross-shaped existence in Christ. It is letting the cross be the shape, as well as the source, of life in Christ. It is participating in and embodying the cross. It may also be described, more technically, as non-identical repetition, by the power of the Spirit, of the narrative of Christ's self-giving faith and love that was quintessentially expressed in his incarnation and death on the cross. It is, therefore, a narrative spirituality, a spirituality that tells a story, the story of Christ crucified. (pp. 146-7)

Amazing grace: Roman justice VS the saving restorative justice of God

Here is another quote from Michael Gorman's Reading Paul.

"Roman justice was a way of bringing order out of chaos, but it resulted in a system of more justice for some (the elite) and less for others. Furthermore, it required a system of punishment and deterrence that included the shame of public crucifixion for those who threatened the order that Roman justice created. In other words,... Roman justice required the exclusion and even the destruction of anyone perceived to be a threat to the peace/the social order/justice. The descendants of Roman justice, including certain contemporary versions of domestic as well as international justice, inevitably follow a similar pattern, culminating in the destruction of the enemy...

The saving, restorative justice of God revealed in the gospel is an alternative way of setting people right with God and with one another. It takes place not by inflicting violence to the enemy, but by absorbing violence on behalf of the enemy. Its extreme modus operandi is not to crucify but to be crucified. It does not require the destruction of the enemy but the embrace of the enemy. The justice of God, therefore, is not the opposite of compassion but the very expression of com­passion. It is at once the manifestation of God's faithfulness, because this is the way God is, and of God's grace, because it is not what humans deserve. Romans 3:21-26 and especially 5:6—8 demonstrate that Christ crucified displays this kind of divine justice, simultaneously revealing that "normal" forms of justice are in fact alien to the gospel:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. (Rom 5:6-8)"

If Gorman is right, there is much for us to reflect on.