A majestic prayer

I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19; NRSV)

Ephesians 3:16 ἵνα δῷ ὑμῖν κατὰ τὸ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ δυνάμει κραταιωθῆναι διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸν ἔσω ἄνθρωπον, 3:17 κατοικῆσαι τὸν Χριστὸν διὰ τῆς πίστεως ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν, ἐν ἀγάπῃ ἐρριζωμένοι καὶ τεθεμελιωμένοι, 3:18 ἵνα ἐξισχύσητε καταλαβέσθαι σὺν πᾶσιν τοῖς ἁγίοις τί τὸ πλάτος καὶ μῆκος καὶ ὕψος καὶ βάθος,  3:19 γνῶναί τε τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν τῆς γνώσεως ἀγάπην τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἵνα πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ θεοῦ.

Something from C Kavin Rowe's World Upside Down

I am reading C Kavin Rowe's World Upside Down (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). There is a lot of good stuff. (But I have to admit that I am no expert on Acts, which is what the book focuses on.)

The title of chapter 2 is "Collision: Explicating Divine Identity". It examines the following:

Acts 14: Paul and Barnabas - Hermes and Zeus
Acts 16: Power at Philippi
Acts 17: Athens
Acts 19: Ephesus

I think it is a fascinating chapter. It talks about the collision between Christianity and Paul's audience in different cities. Here are some excerpts from the conclusion of the chapter (on pages 50, 51).

"This collision, however, is not due to the missionaries' lack of tact (though they were doubtless bold) or to a pagan propensity for rash violence...; rather, its deeper basis rests ultimately in the theological affirmation of the break between God and the cosmos. For to affirm that God has 'created heaven and earth' is, in Luke's narrative, simultaneously to name the entire complex of pagan religiousness as idolatry and, thus, to assign to such religiousness the character of ignorance."

"Ancient religion, that is to say, is a pattern of practices and beliefs inextricably interwoven with the fabric of ancient culture. Religion is not, however, just part of this fabric, ultimately passive and controlled by other more basic influences such as politics and economics, for economics. Rather, religion is also constitutive of culture; it helps to construct the cultural fabric itself."

"In short, religion and culture are inseparable, and the difference in the perception of divine identity amounts to nothing less than a different way of life."

To me, this last sentence says a lot. To be followers of Jesus is about a different way of life. We can't speak of "believing in Jesus" without following his way of life - a new culture and a new way of living that centres around Christ and the cross. I think the above from Rowe's book has several other implications to the church today.

• Do we engage in mission as if culture and religion are inseparable? If we do, then we can't be effective. Indeed we can make a lot of mistakes.
• What is the relationship between our faith and our own culture? Does our faith transform the culture in which we live? Or is our faith actually influenced by the culture of the world so much so that the world cannot see any difference between us and them? (For example, are we just as materialistic and the world in affluent West?)

More questions can be asked. But I will leave it there.

Michael Bird on the cross - death and resurrection of Christ

Michael Bird's recent post is well written. Here are some excerpts.

"David Bebbington noted that in the nineteenth interdenominational newspaper the The British Weekly the most frequently preached text was Gal 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer life, but Christ lives in me. The life I life in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”."

"Christian discipleship is cruciformity, being conformed to the pattern of the cross, dying to self in service to God. That is is what it means to take up your cross and follow Jesus daily (Luke 9:23) and to be crucified to the world (Gal 6:14)."

"We have to remember, that cross and resurrection are an indissoluable unity. The cross without the resurrection is just martyrdom, at the most an act of solidarity with the persecuted nation, and at worst a wrongly calculate disaster. Conversely, the resurrection without the cross is a miraculous intrusion into history, a redemptive-historical enigma, and a paranormal freak show with indeterminable significance. But together the cross and resurrection constitute the fulcrum upon which God’s intention to repossess the world for himself is launched and enacted."

Click here for Mike Bird's post. (I would like to add that without death there is no resurrection. Both the death and resurrection are important. In fact, his life is also important to our Christian life and faith.)

Nijay Gupta's review on Love Wins

Nijay K Gupta has written a review on Rob Bell's Love Wins.

Here is part of his introduction:

"Before we get started, I wanted to quickly comment on how Christians, and evangelicals in particular, should approach a controversial book. Because so many things were said to condemn Bell and his book even before it was released, we can see a dangerous trend among conservatives of a shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later technique. This raises the question: are we (Christians, and I am talking to my fellow evangelicals in particular) a teachable people? Sure, we have convinctions [sic]. We can draw a line and say: this is what I believe and what is outside of that I don’t believe. However, I think we (evangelicals) often cross over into the dangerous realm of only accepting inside scholars and, when we do happen to engage in dialogue with outsiders (be they Catholics, agnostics, Orthodox, etc.), we only do so trying to gain more converts to our perspective. The danger in this framework is that we lose a sense of humility and shared recognition that while we have convictions, we still have much to learn, and especially from each other. 

That does not mean that you accept any and every teaching that comes your way, but you say to yourself: maybe I have something (even if something very small) to learn from a fellow human being who has worked hard (presumably) to comment in a fruitful way on an important subject..."

 

Gupta discusses the book under the headings of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Click here for the post in his blog.

Click here for the full script.

Scot McKnight on the Beatitudes in Luke 6:20-26 (and Luke 4:16-21)

I am reading Scot McKnight's One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow. In one chapter he looks at Luke 4:16-21 and 6:20-26 (which is often called the Sermon on the Plain).

McKnight makes the following comments on the latter passage.

"Imagine what it would have been like for a poor Galilean to hear these words, and then imagine what it would have been like to be a rich Galilean and hear these words. The first group's chests were swelling as the second group's blood pressure was rising." (page 65)

Every time I read these words of Jesus I wonder which side I'm on. Am I with the poor or with the rich? I think Jesus wants us to feel that tension. He came, as he announced in his first sermon, for the poor and for the hungry and for those who weep and for those who are persecuted; and he came against the rich and against the well fed and against those who laugh now and against those who are popular. This is why he blesses the poor and offers only 'woes' to the rich." (page 66; emphasis original)

Don't think that McKnight's words are too strong. Read Luke 6:20-26 and you will find that his comments are fair.

Movie: Of Gods and Men

Michael Gorman recommends a film called Of Gods and Men.

Sounds like something really worth watching.

Here is what Gorman says.

Here is a review from The Melbourne Anglican.

The resurrection of Christ as God's reign and in real life (Michael Gorman)

Michael Gorman has written a short reflection on the resurrection at Easter, which is not only relevant at Easter but the entire year.

Gorman begins with this:

"Today, of course, is Easter. In my experience, there are two types of Easter sermons: those that are primarily soteriological–what Christ’s resurrection means for us–and those that are primarily Christological–what Christ’s resurrection means for Christ. The latter type is also the rarer, and the former tends to be rather lightweight, theologically speaking.

I would naturally tend to prefer the more theological, the Christological, but of course Christology cannot be separated from soteriology. Easter is is not about us, first of all, but is about us, finally, and about God’s entire creation."

Gorman then shares some real life examples, as well as some good stuff from Tom Wright.

Click here for the full post in Michael Gorman's blog.

Social justice and mission (Centre for Applied Christian Ethics (CACE), Ridley College)

Last year I had the privilege of writing a paper to respond to three speakers at a theological forum at Tabor College on the topic Social Justice and the Mission of the Church.

The speakers were

Michael Raiter, Principal of Melbourne School of Theology (formerly Bible College of Victoria)
Deborah Storie, Chair of TEAR Australia
Steve Bradbury, Director of Micah 6:8 Centre, Tabor College

Click here for the papers.

Embody God's victory (Timothy Gombis)

I am enjoying Timothy Gombis' The Drama of Ephesians (2010). Here is something that can help us understand how to embody Christ' triumph over evil in our daily life (which is perhaps very relevant during Easter but certainly relevant throughout the year).

"A prisoner has lost his freedom and is under the domination of the state... According to the first-century logic, if Paul is in a Roman prison, then the gods of Rome are stronger than the God whom Paul serves. So, why is Paul under the thumb of the powers that Christ has already vanquished?..." (p 109)

"So Paul gives them an apocalyptic interpretation of his apostleship and imprisonment. This is a heavenly vision of his life and ministry focusing especially on how it makes perfect sense that he is in prison... Paul's strategy is to situate his present circumstances squarely within the biblical tradition of God's power being demonstrated in human weakness. He does this by emphasizing the paradox of his life and ministry - at the same time that he occupies this terribly shameful and utterly weak situation as a prisoner, he fulfills a cosmically crucial commission as the administrator of the grace of God. In so doing, Paul wonderfully performs the same paradox as God's victory in Christ. Jesus Christ conquered the powers and authorities through his shameful and humiliating death on a Roman cross. because of God's upside-down logic, performances of God's triumph will inevitably involve displays of God's power through human weakness, loss, shame and humiliation." (p 110)

Scot McKnight on the atoning death of Christ

Looking for something to reflect on at Easter?

Click here for Scot McKnight's post on the atoning death of Christ.

N T Wright's article on ABC on the resurrection

Click here for an article written by N T Wright for the ABC about the resurrection.

Reflection: Some thoughts on the cross on Good Friday

Here are some thoughts I have about the cross.

The radical notion of the Son of God dying for the sinful humanity on the shameful Roman cross as the atoning sacrifice is an extraordinary picture of divine participation in human suffering. The Christ-community's suffering is not something unfamiliar with the Creator God, for he allowed his own Son to be subject to ancient Rome’s brutality. The profound “mystery” of God sharing in human suffering has been revealed to us through a notorious object of Roman oppression, namely, the cross.

The identification of God’s Son as a weak and frail human being is at the same time his way of delivering humanity from sin and death, which is of course thoroughly counter-cultural - both in the ancient world and in the 21st century.

What a God we worship. And he calls us to follow him.

Social justice and salvation (Centre for Applied Christian Ethics (CACE), Ridley College)

Last year Dr Tim Foster (Ridley College), Merrill Kitchen (former principal of Churches of Christ Theological College) and I spoke at a theological forum run by World Vision Australia. The topic was Social Justice and Salvation.

Short versions of the papers presented at the forum are now published by the Centre for Applied Christian Ethics (CACE) at Ridley College, Melbourne. There is an additional article written by Nils von Kalm in response to the speakers at the forum.

The full articles can be found here.

Below are the excerpts from the articles (one from each author).

"If Jesus’ death effectively dealt with evil, if his resurrection was bodily and real, and if Jesus now reigns as Lord, we cannot for a moment see salvation as something that lies in the future, but something that is both present and future. This is the whole basis for Pauline ethics. So in Colossians 2 & 3, Paul states that we have died with Christ and we have already been raised with Christ, so we ought to live the resurrection life now. Salvation is about the present and the future. Salvation is not something we wait for, but something we can enjoy here and now, genuinely anticipating what happens in the future." (Foster)

"It must be acknowledged, also, that there is a strong apocalyptic element in the Hebrew understanding of salvation. The religious, social and political control entities constantly challenged the values of justice and equality valued by the Israelites, with the threat of annihilation constantly around the corner. But it is not an understanding of triumph over others as much as a ‘rescue from attacking nations’ (Zech. 12:7) and the ‘gathering of the dispersed’ (Is. 43:5ff) that will have a final conclusion in God’s timing. Salvation is described in Isaiah as a ‘well’ (Is. 12:3), in which ‘all the world can share its salvation.’ The promises of salvation in these Biblical documents were nearly always corporate in their focus. It was not just about the privilege of Israel over and against others but it brought good news for all humanity." (Kitchen)

"People in Rome were familiar with socioeconomic, political and religious oppression. The early Christians in Rome were not exempt from this, experiencing all sorts of injustices. In light of this, Romans 12:9-21 would have made good sense to Paul’s audience. They are called to be patient in affliction (thlipsis) and joyful in hope (12:12). They are to “love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour,” and “associate with the lowly” (12:10, 16; NRSV). The society in ancient Rome was highly hierarchical. Slaves did not enjoy mutual affection from free people. Those in relatively high positions on the social ladder did not normally give honour to those in the lower classes. Hence Paul astonishingly envisages a huge status-reversal taking place." (myself)

"The great hope of the Christian message is that God is in the process of putting the world to rights, as N.T. Wright describes it. What we read in passages like Isaiah 65 and Revelation 21 is the wonderful story of the new heavens and the new earth, of heaven and earth coming together. It is about God coming here to live with His people. What we see is not us going ‘up’ to be in heaven, but heaven coming here. This is the transformation that we long for, and it is coming. It will be a transformation of not just society, but of the human heart as well. It will be a time when there will be no more tears and no more pain (Rev 21:4), a time of justice and peace for all. But note also that Jesus says in Revelation 22, ‘I have come to make all things new’. In the new creation, it will not be just humanity that is transformed, but the whole creation. Our hope is that ‘the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God’ (Rom 8:21)." (von Kalm)

What is heaven? (from Scot McKnight)

Scot McKnight has written something about heaven that I've been think for awhile. As I read the Bible, I find that "heaven", for the ancients, would mean the "sky" (according to their worldview and not in the modern scientific sense).

(Click here for McKnight's full post.)

"There’s a reason why the ancients, both Jews and Greek and Romans, used a word like “heaven” for where God is and where folks go when they die. Yes, there’s lots of variety in the ancient world; and they used a variety of words, but the NT word is “heaven” and that word means “sky.” And there all kinds of Jewish texts about ascending into heaven. Why did Jesus and the early Christians fasten on that word for doing the lion’s share of work on where God is? Obviously this is phenomenology. God was above and beyond and when we die, if we are righteous, we go to be with God and that means we go to heaven (in the skies)...The NT modifies this: it eventually lands not on just ascending into heaven (into the skies) but on a meeting of heaven and earth in the New Heavens and the New Earth. Most Christians need to learn this and the sooner the better. The “final” place in the Bible is the New Heavens and the New Earth — and these two meet in Jerusalem! Read Revelation 20-22..."

(Note: McKnight's post is on Rob Bell's book Love Wins. But I do not intend to comment on this book here. Or else it will confuse the matter.)

An upside-down world (Christopher Wright)

I found a good article written by Christopher Wright on mission, entitled An Upside-down World. (Click here for the full article.) Here are some excerpts.

"More Christians worship in Anglican churches in Nigeria each week than in all the Episcopal and Anglican churches of Britain, Europe, and North America combined. There are more Baptists in Congo than in Britain. More people in church every Sunday in communist China than in all of Western Europe. Ten times more Assemblies of God members in Latin America than in the U.S."

"Perhaps what we most need to learn, since we so easily forget it, is that mission is and always has been God's before it becomes ours. The whole Bible presents a God of missional activity, from his purposeful, goal-oriented act of Creation to the completion of his cosmic mission in the redemption of the whole of Creation—a new heaven and a new earth. The Bible also presents to us humanity with a mission (to rule and care for the earth); Israel with a mission (to be the agent of God's blessing to all nations); Jesus with a mission (to embody and fulfill the mission of Israel, bringing blessing to the nations through bearing our sin on the Cross and anticipating the new Creation in his Resurrection); and the church with a mission (to participate with God in the ingathering of the nations in fulfillment of Old Testament Scriptures)."

"This God-centered refocusing of mission turns inside-out our obsession with mission plans, agendas, goals, strategies, and grand schemes.

We ask, "Where does God fit into the story of my life?" when the real question is, "Where does my little life fit into the great story of God's mission?""

"Most of all, we need to go back to the Cross and relearn its comprehensive glory. For if we persist in a narrow, individualistic view of the Cross as a personal exit strategy to heaven, we fall short of its biblical connection to the mission purpose of God for the whole of creation (Col. 1:20) and thereby lose the Cross-centered core of holistic mission. It is vital that we see the Cross as central to every aspect of holistic, biblical mission—that is, of all we do in the name of the crucified and risen Jesus. It is a mistake, in my view, to think that while our evangelism must be centered on the Cross (as of course it has to be), our social engagement has some other theological foundation or justification."

Tearfund's "Silence No More" report - The church to speak up

Silence No More is a report from Tearfund UK. It is about sexual violence in the world and calls the church to speak up for vulnerable women and children. (Click here for the report.)

Here are some key points from the report.

"Prevalent in conflict, sexual violence is common within communities worldwide – but as an issue it remains largely hidden. Women, girls, men and boys are all at risk of sexual violence."

"This report highlights three key points about the largely untapped potential of the church in preventing and reducing the impact of sexual violence:

1 Sexual violence is endemic to many communities across the world but its scale and impact are largely hidden.

2 Many churches deepen the impact of the sexual violence crisis through silence and by reinforcing stigma and discrimination. Action is needed to overcome this.

3 Churches worldwide, and especially in Africa, have huge untapped potential to respond to the crisis, as they are a key part of communal life."

Scot McKnight: Exploring Rob Bell's Love Wins

I will try to include what Scot McKnight has to say about Rob Bell's new book Love Wins here in the coming days. That is, I will include the links to the posts from McKnight's blog when he discusses Rob Bell's book. (Sorry if I miss some of McKnight's posts. I am a busy man.)

Click here for "Exploring Love Wins 1" on 1st April 2011.

Click here for "Exploring Love Wins 2" on 4th April 2011.

Click here for "Exploring Love Wins 3" on 6th April 2011.

Click here for "Exploring Love Wins 4" on 8th April 2011.

Click here for "Rob Bell's Confession" on 8th April 2011.

Click here for "Exploring Love Wins 5" on 11th April 2011.

Click here for "Exploring Love Wins 6" on 13th April 2011.

Click here for "Exploring Love Wins 7" on 15th April 2011.

Click here for "Exploring Love Wins 8" on 18th April 2011.

Click here for "Exploring Love Wins 9" on 21st April 2011.

(See here for other reviews on Rob Bell's Love Wins.)

Joel Willitts' review on Rob Bell's Love Wins - part 2

Joel Willitts has written the second part of his review on Rob Bell's Love Wins. (Click here for the link.)

He outlines three claims that Rob Bell has made, and then critique accordingly. Here are excerpts of what he says about Bell's claims. (You will need to read the entire post by Willitts to get what he means.)

"The first claim represents an issue of colossal importance because if Rob Bell is in fact correct then we indeed need to repent immediately of our misguided and toxic understanding of the Gospel and push restart. We need to reboot our theological hard drives. If we have the Gospel wrong we won’t have much else right."

"The second claim about the importance of question asking is interesting. And there is indeed some truth in what he’s said in my opinion."

"The third claim is perhaps the least able to stand up under the weight of the evidence not in its favor."

(Click here for Willitts' full review.)

A Matter of Life and Death (Easter reflections)

I wrote an article entitled A Matter of Life and Death a couple of years ago. I re-read it recently, and I actually enjoyed reading it. (Click here for the link to read the full article.)

Here are some excerpts.

"The offence of the message of the crucified Christ is its bold and counter-cultural claim against the basic idolatry of humanity...

We should not shy away from preaching the crucified Christ in our churches...

The Christian hope is not so much about a future otherworldly existence... It is, rather, about a blessed hope of new life at the final cosmic renewal that God has in store for his creation. It means that those who are suffering from emotional pain, chronic sickness, poverty, social injustice and relio-political oppression, have a genuine hope of fullness of life in the new heaven and new earth...

Through the power of the Spirit we proclaim that Jesus is the true Lord of the world, as the disciples did in Acts. We proclaim that this Lord is over and above all the rulers, systems and structures in this world, and He demands justice and mercy for the poor and oppressed. One day He will come again for His own creation, and those who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved through repentance and faith in Jesus. Let us proclaim this message - through our words and life - to a world that is out of joint and yearns to hear the good news of Easter."

(Click here for the full article.)

Joel Willitts' review on Rob Bell's Love Wins

Here is Joel Willitts' review on Rob Bell's new book Love Wins.

I haven't read the book myself and so I have no comments about the book itself. But I think it helps to see what Willitts thinks. Click here for his review.

Click here for my previous post, which has a number of other reviews from Scot McKnight's blog.

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!

The Task of Our Generation (Daniel Kirk)

Daniel Kirk has posted The Task of Our Generation in his blog. (Click here for the link.) I think it is really worth reading.

As a bi-cultural person (Asian-Aussie), I do find that the dichotomies in our Western mindset somewhat frustrating. But it's our task to overcome that, so that we may proclaim the gospel and live it out at the same time (and to do so both as individuals and as a community at the same time!).

Here are some excerpts from Kirk's post.

"In the post-conservative Christian circles in which I run, people have often experienced a shift. From an entry into Christianity that is all about Jesus dying for my sins, people later discover a Kingdom of God that demands active engagement with the world."

"Within the world of Pauline studies a parallel distinction is sometimes highlighted. On the one hand, there is Jesus dying “for me,” with its concomitant substitutionary language of justification and the like. On the other hand, there is my “dying with Christ,” with its concomitant participatory language of co-crucifixion, co-glorification and the like."

"I see the [t]ask of our generation to overcome this false dichotomy by (1) insisting that it’s not a dichotomy after all; and (2) articulating atonement in such a way that action and transformation are inherent to the saving story of Jesus." (I think Kirk meant "task" in the first sentence here.)

"There are many ways to put the question we must answer.

At the Institute for Biblical Research this year, Tom Wright put the question, “What does the Kingdom of God have to do with the cross?”"

"And, until we can so tell the story of Jesus’ death such that his life is not only an anticipation... but inseparable from his atoning death, that we have not yet comprehended what it is to say that Jesus died for our sins."

Justice for the poor and oppressed: The law, the prophets and Matthew (towards a biblical theology of justice)

Micah 6:8 is a well known verse about justice. But do you realise that it is echoed by Jesus in one of his seven woes against the Pharisees and the Scribes? The very people who are supposed to know the Scripture and are in relatively high religious and social positions fail to understand God's purpose and his value system.

And do you realise that the words of Micah can trace back to the Law of Moses, and that Jeremiah has something profound to say about it? Indeed, both the Law and the prophet Jeremiah talk about the circumcision of the heart (or the lack of it) when they talk about the people's failure to seek justice for the poor and marginalised.

I think a careful study of these Scriptures will help us understand God's love for the poor and oppressed - that from ancient times he wants his people to live in such a way that will reflect his character.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky. (Deuteronomy 10:12-22)

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. (Matthew 23:23)

This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD. “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh— Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the wilderness in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.” (Jeremiah 9:23-25)

A careful look at these passages will reveal that they are connected with the following themes and biblical stories.

• Yahweh is the Creator God and hence the Genesis story, and hence all praise goes to him
• The Exodus story, in which the righteous, just and faithful God graciously rescued his people from social, economical, racial and political oppressions
• The Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which is of course the greatest commandment according to Jesus, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." - And note how the next verse makes the heart the location of this love and how it is to be expressed, "These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts."
• The new (renewed) covenant foreshadowed by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, that one day God would circumcise the heart of his people through the outpouring of the Spirit
• This in turn has now been fulfilled through Jesus the Messiah and the indwelling Spirit in the life of the Christ-community, who seek to follow Jesus and his self-giving and love-filled way of life.
  

We can see how these passages can form the basis of a biblical theology of justice for the poor and oppressed. It is about the loving and faithful God, his gracious saving acts, and the demand for faithful discipleship on the part of the Jesus-followers.

(All of these passages are taken from the NIV2011)

The word "hell" (ie. Greek: geennan) in the New Testament

It seems that Rob Bell's new book Love Wins will be a subject of debate/conversation for awhile, because he talks about the meaning of "hell". For those who are interested, here are the verses in the New Testament (NRSV) that have the Greek geennan, which is often translated as "hell" in the English Bible translations. It is interesting (and important) to look at the context of each of these 12 verses in the New Testament.

Matt. 5:22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.
Matt. 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Matt. 5:30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.
Matt. 10:28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matt. 18:9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the hell of fire.
Matt. 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Matt. 23:33 You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to hell?
Mark 9:43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.
Mark 9:45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell.
Mark 9:47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell,
Luke 12:5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!
James 3:6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell.

I think every good student of the Bible should start with the Bible itself before entering into the debate about the subject. There are other places in the Bible that are important when it comes to the questions about love, "hell", judgment, etc. Let's start from the Scripture.

-------------------
Today (14th April 2011) I want to add to this post the following from Scot McKnight's blog (viewed on 14th April 2011).

"Finally, and we’ve perhaps all made this mistake. Gehenna was not a dump outside Jerusalem. No matter how many times people say this — and it has become street truth — there is no evidence that there was a town dump outside Jerusalem in the first century. As Dale Allison puts it, “without ancient support.” That place, the Valley of Hinnom where there was an idolatrous high place called Topheth, was the notorious place of death and idolatry and fire and judgment, but it was not the town dump of Jerusalem. To use Gehenna for Jesus was to use a metaphor for divine judgment and destruction. See the OT uses in Jer 7:31-32; 19:2-9; 32:35; Isa 30:33. It is not only flippant but inaccurate to say Gehenna is the town dump — it is a metaphor for divine judgment." (Click here for McKnight's full post.)

Obviously Professor Scot McKnight is more qualified than I am to comment on this matter. I will do more work on this matter when I have time.

Scot McKnight on some reviews of Rob Bell's new book Love Wins

In Scot McKnight's blog there are a few reviews on Rob Bell's new book Love Wins. Click here for the link.

A few days ago McKnight said this:

"As you may know, I consider the issues surrounding universalism, the love of God and the justice of God, the relationship of our life now and our life then … I consider these issues to be the most significant challenge to the Christian faith today. Pounding the hell pulpit or knee-jerk defenses of what Rob says aren’t going to satisfy the aching questions so many have about this topic today." (Click here for the full post.)

I think the last sentence here is wise.

The divine drama and God's upside down logic (Some great quotes form Tim Gombis)

I am reading Tim Gombis' The Drama of Ephesians. Here are some really good quotes.

"[B]ecause we are not the only actors on the cosmic stage and because the powers and authorities who rule the present evil age are intimately bound up with cultures in every part of the world, skillful and faithful performance of the drama of God's redemption is necessarily going to involve our being cultural critics. Culture is not neutral, and the various, multifaceted, complex and subtle ways of life and thought that are up and running in our culture at every level are perverted on some way by the fallen and malignant powers and authorities." (p 32)

"God defeats the powers through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is a radically subversive way of doing things. The cross turns everything on its head - God wins by losing; the powers lose by winning. The powers' triumph over Christ on the cross was their own defeat; and Christ's defeat won him victory." (p 88)

"This is radically subversive of the normal way of doing things. According to corrupted social logic of how things work in the world, we get things done by winning or by dominating others. We typically manipulate situations to bring about certain ends and goals. We win by winning. We triumph by triumphing. If that means that there are losers or that we have to step on people as we advance our goals, so be it. We win in personal encounters through power moves and intimations. We must dominate others, grab for power and exploit the weak.

But this is not God's way. God does not act according to the conventions of perverted human imagining. God comes in weakness, and his logic is upside down if we look at it in human terms. Jesus speaks from this logic when he says that the one who seeks to save his life will lose it and the one who loses his life will save it (Mk 8:35). Elsewhere, Paul draws out this subversive way that God works when he says that God's way of working is foreign to the power-hungry cosmic rulers. In 1 Corinthians 2:8, he says that if the rulers of this age had understood God's upside-down logic, God's wisdom of working his power through weakness, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory..." (p 88)

"Ephesians is not a doctrinal treatise in the scholastic sense of that term. It is, rather, a drama in which Paul portrays the powerful, reality-altering, cosmic-transforming acts of God in Christ to redeem God's world and save God's people for the glory of his name." (15)

On Ephesians 4:15, most English translations have "speaking the truth in love". But Gombis thinks that "Paul uses it [ie. the Greek word for "truth"] in a verbal sense, indicating that truth is something that the church is to do, not just to know and to speak." Then Gombis uses 4:20-21 to show that "Paul is referring to Jesus' life as the master performance of the truth and the church's task of studying Jesus' life - his words, his actions, his way with people. Studying Jesus, according to Paul, gives us wisdom as we set about to perform the drama of the gospel." (p 16)

Church, community, being counter-cultural

I found the following from Scot McKnight's blog. Is the church about community? Does it have the courage to be counter-cultural?

(Click here for the post.)

"[The] church is and will remain at the epicenter of Christian community, it is the community, essential for worship, for sacrament, for fellowship, but the work of the church, the work of the pastor, is not to lead or cast vision or draw people in, but to equip, disciple, and send Christians out."

"We need to be counter cultural in approach to the church as committed community and as the body of Christ."

What do you think?

Resurrection and God's justice for the oppressed and those who suffer unjustly

Some time ago I posted the following quote from Joel Green's commentary on 1 Peter (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007). I think it's worth posting it again. It is about the resurrection.

Three interrelated motifs help to structure our understanding: (A) Resurrection signals the restoration of Israel. (B) Resurrection marks God's vindication of the righteous who have suffered unjustly; having been condemned and made to suffer among humans, the righteous will in the resurrection be vindicated before God. (C) Resurrection marks the decisive establishment of divine justice; injustice and wickedness will not have the final word, but in the resurrection will be decisively repudiated. To proclaim the resurrection, then, is already to proclaim a new world, and to call for a "conversion of the imagination." (page 28)

I have been thinking that in Acts the apostles' preaching was often about the resurrection (and, of course, the death) of Christ. It's good news for all. But for the poor and oppressed, this is especially comforting, for it is about God's justice and vindication for the suffering righteous. Injustice does not have the final say. God reigns. It is good news indeed.

Book notice: Dialogue with Tom Wright at Wheaton

Last year a number of respected Christian leaders met at Wheaton College to dialogue with Tom Wright about his view on Jesus, Paul and the church. I listened to a few presentations at this conference and it was really good. Here we don't just hear theology, but Tom Wright's pastor's heart. The speakers do disagree with Wright on several points, but they are very gracious.

They have now published a book based on the presentations at the conference. It's worth buying, I believe.

Jesus, Paul and the People of God: A Theological Dialogue with N. T. Wright (Edited by Nicholas Perrin and Richard B. Hays)

Here is the content of the book:

Part One: Jesus and the People of God

1 Jesus and the Victory of God Meets the Gospel of John
Marianne Meye Thompson
N. T. Wright's Response

2 Knowing Jesus: Story, History and the Question of Truth
Richard B. Hays
N. T. Wright's Response

3 "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends": Jesus and the Justice of God
Sylvia C. Keesmaat and Brian J. Walsh
N. T. Wright's Response

4 Jesus' Eschatology and Kingdom Ethics: Ever the Twain Shall Meet
Nicholas Perrin
N. T. Wright's Response

5 Whenece and Whither Historical Jesus Studies in the Life of the Church
N. T. Wright

Part Two: Paul and the People of God

6 Glimpsing the Glory: Paul's Gospel, Righteousness and the Beautiful Feet of N. T. Wright
Edith M. Humphrey
N. T. Wright's Response

7 The Shape of Things to Come? Wright Amidst Emerging Ecclesiologies
Jeremy S. Begbie
N. T. Wright's Response

8 Did St. Paul Go to Heaven When He Died?
Markus Bockmuehl
N. T. Wright's Response

9 Wrighting the Wrongs of the Reformation?
The State of the Union with Christ in St. Paul and Protestant Soteriology
Kevin J. Vanhoozer
N. T. Wright's Response

10 Whence and Whither Pauline Studies in the Life of the Church?
N. T. Wright

(Click here for the link to this book.)

Kavin Rowe's book: World Upside Down

I really want to buy C. Kavin Rowe's book World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age.

I managed to find a few quotes from Daniel Kirk's blog post. (Click here for the post.) Here they are.

“To see the potential of the Christian mission for cultural demise is to read it rightly. Indeed, this is but the flip side of the reality that God’s identity receives new cultural explication in the formation of a community whose moral or metaphysical order requires and alternative way of life” (146).

"In Luke’s telling of the story, the formation of alternative communities, with alternative cultures, is inseparable from the reality of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead to be lord over all. Moreover, the existence of such communities, with their alternative forms of life, become the context within which the truth can be spoken and known. Thus, the Christian claims are “madness”–but only to those without eyes to see." (161-162)

“Acts narrates the life of the Christian mission as the embodied pattern of Jesus’s own life… Put succinctly, according to Acts, the missio Dei has a christological norm” (173).

Being a missional church: Being known for their community service

Two members of our Christian community were nominated for the Honouring Women in the City of Moreland Award for their wok with women in the local community and the world. We are very proud of them.

This is great Christian witness. They are inspiring people!

Dealing with the cause of poverty and social injustice:Power imbalance between the poor and non-poor

When it comes to serving the poor, what Jayakumar Christian says here, I think, is vital.

"The concrete expressions, or symptoms, of poverty are familiar to us all - social and economic deprivation, low income and unemployment. The causes of poverty, however, are flawed relationships. Poverty is about the oppressive relationships between the poor and the non-poor - how the poor and the social systems relate, and how the poor relate to civil society and government. Within the context of these flawed relationships, power is abused. This abuse of power is then expressed in low income, lack of food security, lack of nutrition and all those usual ways we measure poverty." (Excerpt from Another Way to Love, edited by Tim Costello and Rod Yule; Dr Jayakumar Christian is National Director of World Vision India.)

The ultimate cause of power abuse and unjust systems is of course sin. It is not only that individuals (including Christians) sin, there are also unjust social, economic, religious and political systems that are oppressive - even though some individuals in those systems are godly people. Christians must learn to recognise the existence of these systems and learn to discern who abuse power in those systems. (And sometimes we can be - unknowingly - involved in those systems.) We need to name them and seek ways to deal with them with God's help.

A heart of compassion and generosity are good and important. But they do not deal with the cause of poverty and injustice. Three examples in the Bible will help us here.

(1) The story of David, Bathsheba, Uriah and Nathan (2 Samuel 11:1-12:15). Here the sin of David is not just adultery and murder, but the abuse of his power. He who is in a position of power uses it to take someone's wife through an act of violence. The prophet Nathan's parable is telling, for it is about a poor man's own possession (an ewe lamb) being taken by a rich man who has plenty of flocks. The narrative here demonstrates that all sorts of (individual and social) interconnected evils exist through the abuse of power.

(2) Naboth's vineyard (1 Kings 21:1-29). Here Naboth refuses to give his vineyard to king Ahab because it is the inheritance that Yahweh has given his household. According to the Law of Moses, Israelite households are not to lose the land Yahweh has given them as a gift. But Ahab uses his power (via Jezebel) to kill Naboth and take his possession. Power is abused by someone in a position of power. The powerless person loses his possessions and his life. Here is a good example where compassion and generosity alone do not deal with the cause of injustice. Sin and power dynamics are at play.

What the prophets Isaiah, Amos and Micah say explicitly against social injustice are said implicitly by the two stories above.

(3) The story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). Here the rich man is considered wicked, while the poor man is seen as righteous. (This is of course where the Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6:20-26 makes sense.) To understand the story one has to read what Jesus has to say just before he tells the story. (Take a look at Luke 16:14-18 and you will see!) One thing that comes out from the story seems to be: The rich and powerful fail to understand the value system of the kingdom of God, despite the fact that they have the Scripture; but God shows mercy to the poor and powerless. (See my other article here for more about the rich man and Lazarus.)

In each of the above stories we see power imbalance. All too often human's desire for more stuff manifests itself throught a web of sin, social evils and oppression against the poor. This can happen in a local village in a low-income country, where the rich locals oppress the poor in the land. This can also happen when those who live in rich countries are unwilling to care for the poor in the world.

(It must be noted that none of what I said above means that the rich are more sinful than the poor. All have fallen short of the glory of God, and all need the grace of God for salvation. But the above highlights the complexity of our broken world, and what can be done about it when it comes to poverty and injustice.)

Walking with the poor cross-culturally in Melbourne

In the latest issue of UNOH's Finding Life newsletter (March 2011), I read the following article by Peter Dekker, which is really worth reading. As a bi-cultural person I can testify that Peter and his family's dedication to Christ and the poor in a non-Western culture has set a good example for us.

From “FOR” to “WITH”

The most crucial change that must take place in our adjustments to a new culture is to learn to see its people as “people” – as human beings like ourselves – and their culture as our culture.
(Paul G. Hiebert. Anthropological Insights for missionaries, 1985)

There is a massive difference between doing something FOR someone and doing something WITH someone. As a Westerner in a Western context, it is easy to do a lot of things FOR a refugee group that is settling into your neighbourhood. We can get results, we know the system, we know the ways to get things done... we know what is best for them. What this sort of an attitude boils down to however is imperialism, and we are all well aware of the sins of the past committed by colonising countries and even missionaries in the name of “knowing what is best”.

2010 was a real time of spiritual growth and formation for Naomi and I as our team was reduced from 5 or 6 down to just 2. God was teaching us an important lesson; through team-mates leaving to pursue their callings in other places, and reducing our team from a well oiled machine that could get things done, to a married couple faced with more work than they could possibly handle alone. We could no longer run around and do things FOR people, if we did this we would have burnt out in a couple of months. Rather we were forced to slow down and do things WITH people. This involved coming along some close relationships and going much deeper than we had before, seeing these people as more than just a ministry opportunity, but beginning to see them as friends and even family. It involved grappling with both the beautiful and ugly sides of their culture, and struggling to understand those parts that seemed most foreign to us, so that we could call their culture our own. It also meant humbling ourselves, and allowing those we were working amongst to do things for us so that our relationships could become truly equal.

As 2011 begins with our team growing from 2 back to 5, and with our work in the neighbourhood gaining more momentum, we thank God for the growth that occurred in 2010 with all its highs and lows. Though there is still a lot to be learnt, 2010 truly was the year we moved from “FOR” to “WITH”.

Peter Dekker.
Springvale Neighbourhood Team Leader.

(Reproduced with permission from the author.)

Lent’s Witness by Brian Gorman

I found this Lent reflection in a post in Michael Gorman's blog. It's quite a good reflection on the testing of Jesus by the devil in Luke 4. Here is an excerpt.

"Temptation #2: The offer of the kingdoms of the world. Jesus is here offered the chance to take over the government and thereby bring God’s kingdom to earth in an authoritative way. The parallel for the church is obvious, that we are offered and tempted for the chance to reform the empire as a means to achieve God’s work in the world. But just as Jesus rejected the kingdoms offered to him, we the church must also reject the temptation to believe that we can bring the kingdom of God through the government. Jesus’ way is the way of death, of weakness and rejection. We must take up that cross daily (the word “daily” is added in Luke’s Gospel from Mark’s). Milton sees this temptation as the temptation to overthrow Rome on behalf of the Jewish people. The fascinating thing about Milton is that his Satan is acutely aware that the restoration and salvation of Israel from Roman Empire is an important part of Jesus’ mission, but his temptations are temptations to not use his divine power (the way of weakness) to achieve the ends. Luke’s answer to this temptation is in Jesus’ anti-triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, where Jesus creates almost a farce of a coup d’etat, coming in on a donkey."

Click here to read the entire post.

An article about Ephesians, the empire and resistance (Nijay Gupta and Fredrick Long)

Nijay Gupta and Fredrick Long have written a good article about Ephesians, the empire and resistance. (Follow the link here to get to the article.) Here is an excerpt.

"In the course of this article, we have engaged passages in Ephesians that have been problematic insofar as they have been interpreted to support an accommodationist reading of the letter. Specifically, we have investigated those passages concerned with rulers and authorities (1.15-23; 2.1-3; 3.10; 6.10-13) and the Household Code (5.15–6.9). Certainly other texts could have been included in our analysis. Our conclusion is that far from supporting the status quo, Ephesians often confronts and trumps imperial prerogatives and titles while also subverting conventional wisdom about household relations. This is achieved by featuring as the head of the church body a political leader and ruler, Jesus Messiah Lord, who himself modeled sacrificial love (1.4-8; 3.15-19; 5.2, 25, 29) and expects such from his followers (4.20-24; 4.32–5.2; 5.25-29)." (Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism, 7 (2010) 112-36, page 135)

I tend to think that as we follow Jesus' self-giving way of life and seek to embody his sacrificial love, we will find ourselves living a life that is counter-cultural. We do not live counter-culturally for the sake of being counter-cultural. But Christ's sacrificial love is in itself counter-cultural, and if we follow him we learn to do what he did (even though only in small measures). There are many powers (political, social, economical, religious) that seek to dehumanise God's image-bearers, and it is through Christ's love, his death and resurrection that people can find hope.

Scot McKnight's comments on the discussion about Rob Bell's new book

Just read Scot McKnight's blog post about the recent discussion on Rob Bell's new book.

Here are some excerpts from McKnight's post.

"My horror, then, was three-fold: first, the image of God that is depicted when hell becomes the final, or emphatic, word and, second, the absence of any context for how to talk about judgment in the Bible and, third, the kinds of emotion expressed: we saw too much gloating and pride and triumphalism on both sides. I felt like those who watched the sinking of the Titanic and who didn’t cringe at the thought of thousands sinking into the Atlantic to a suffocating death. They were instead singing and dancing to a jig that they were right or had been predicting the sinking all along."

"If there is an eternity, and I believe there is, and if there is a judgment, and I believe there is, then let us keep the immensity and gravity of it all in mind and refrain from flippancy, gloating, triumphalism — and let it reduce us to sobriety and humility and prayer. When Abraham faced the prospects of the destruction of Sodom in Genesis 18, he didn’t gloat that he was on the safe side but supplicated YHWH for mercy for those who weren’t. We need more Abrahams."

"To talk about wrath apart from this depiction of the grace-consuming God is to put forward a view of God that is not only unbiblical but potentially monstrous. And, to put forward a view of God that is absent of final judgment, yes of wrath, yes of eternal judgment, is to offer a caricature of the Bible’s God."

I think McKnight has a lot for us to consider. I was going to post something myself on God's judgment and mercy, but I think McKnight has already said much for us to think about.

Click here for his full blog post.

Some concluding remarks from Bruce Longenecker about Paul and poverty

I am still reading Bruce Longenecker's new book Remember the Poor: Paul, Poverty and the Greco-Roman World (Grant Rapids: Eerdmans), 2010. But here is what I found from a quick look at the final pages.

We have seen that Paul's concern for the poor had considerable impact on the way that he lived his life, to the point of risking his own life in "putting his money where his mouth was." This should surprise us only if, unlike Paul, we imagine the "good news" that transformed Paul from persecutor to apostle to be devoid of an economic dimension. But since Paul envisioned an economic component to lie deeply embedded within the good news of the Jesus-movement, the fact that his concern for the poor influenced his manner of living and his approach to peril falls wholly in line with all that we know of this man who, when committing himself to a cause, did so wholeheartedly, and with spirited enthusiasm. (page 316)

I have long been thinking that it is hard to read the stories of Jesus and Paul's letters (and Paul's life story in Acts) without being challenged to live a self-giving life as Christ's followers. And this self-giving life can hardly not include some kind of sacrifice in terms of lowering one's socioeconomic status. I think Longenecker's detailed analysis affirms this rather obvious observation.

(So far - I'm reading chapter 4 - I find Longenecker's analysis of the economic situation of Pauline churches very thorough. He interests with the most recent and the earlier scholarship really well, and has come up with a balanced view on the matter.)

Climate justice: Some reading suggestions

The Evangelical Alliance is running a seminar at Ridley College on climate change this weekend. (See here for details.)

I am slowly working through Romans 8 (and hence Genesis 1) and try to make sense on this issue from a biblical perspective. I find this issue exceedingly complex because it cuts across several disciplines: Bible, theology, economics, climate science, and indeed politics.

The following are some suggested readings (especially for those from an evangelical tradition, and most of my friends are in that tradition).

• Creation in Crisis edited by Robert S White. I haven't read this yet. But I have read Robert White's Cambridge Paper at The Jubilee Centre in the UK about a Christian view on creation care. I think it's of very good value. The contributors to the book include scientists, theologians, and development practitioners from different continents. They include C Rene Padilla, Michael Northcott, Richard Bauckham, Douglas Moo and his son Jonathan Moo.

• Christopher J H Wright's Old Testament Ethics and the Mission of God both have a chapter on the issue. I find Christopher Wright a gentle and careful scholar who can communicate at a popular level.

• My former colleague Brett Parris has written a list of Responses to Questions and Objections to Climate Change. Brett has degrees in geology, theology (BTh from ACT, I think) and a PhD in economics. He is a good thinking and a fine Christian. Click here for the link.

Reflecting on Doctor Who (The Beast Below) as a Christian

The following are conversations found in the Doctor Who episode The Beast Below (Season 5). Every time I watch this episode, I find myself moved by the similarities between this and the Christian experience. (But of course there are huge differences between the Doctor and God.)

Amy Pond: What if you were really old, and really kind and lonely, your whole race dead. What couldn't you do then? If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry.

Amy: Amazing, though, don’t you think? The Star Whale. All that pain and misery…and loneliness…and it just made it kind.
The Doctor: But you couldn’t have known how it would react.
Amy: You couldn’t. But I’ve seen it before. Very old and very kind, and the very, very last. Sound a bit familiar? Hey...

The worrying trend of declining Bible literacy

A research report published by the Evangelical Alliance in the UK (EAUK) just came out. (Click here for the report.) 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.”

Similarly, Cheryl Catford, the former principal of Tabor College in Melbourne, also observed the declining Biblical literacy in Australia in recent years. In an article in 2009 she talked about her experience of seeing a decline in Biblical knowledge among first-year theological students over her more than 15 years of teaching. The challenge of this phenomenon for the church today is well summarised in the following comment in the EAUK report.

"For many in this (younger) age group, beliefs have been shaped by good youth work and summer festivals, rather than personal devotions. We have shared bite-sized theology but one of the greatest challenges is to enable this age group to take responsibility for their own discipleship amidst busy, media saturated lives."

I have written an article to list three reasons for the decline in Bible literacy and two responses to it. Click here for my article.

(Or see my previous post for the excerpts.)

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.

Tom Wright's advice to the next generation of leaders

Michael Bird has posted a clip of Tom Wright, which is about Wright's advice to the next generation of Christian leaders.

What I like about Tom Wright is not only his scholarship, but his pastor's heart. His advice here is simple, but most important. After 30 years of being a Christians this is exactly what I would say to the next generation of leaders. (And it's an important and timely reminder for myself.)

Click here for the clip.

Timothy Gombis on Ephesians

Michael Bird's blog has a post that cites the following from Gombis' The Drama of Ephesians regarding Ephesians 2.

"Paul tells the story in Ephesians 2 of God beginning to fulfill his promises to reclaim and redeem his creation, restoring his world and humanity to their original condition. The whole world was meant to be God's temple, according to the biblical narrative, as God dwelled with humanity and delighted in humanity's enjoyment of creation. After the fall and the tragic corruption of creation, God promises to make all things new and to return with his life-giving presence. These promises are now being fulfilled in the church and will one day be fulfilled creation-wide. This is why Paul quotes Psalm 110 in Ephesians 1:22. God has installed his King on his heavenly throne, and Jesus Christ has begun his work of reclaiming his world. The powers and authorities had rebelled, hijacking God's good world, and have held it in their oppressive and enslaving grip. But God has broken their hold in Jesus Christ and is magnifying his victory through the church. God has triumphed by opening up a sphere within creation that is the beginning of God's work of making all things new" (p. 105).

Lament as true prayer (Dr Diane Jacobson)

I find this an excellent way of describing lament and prayer in the Old Testament. The following quotes are taken from an article written by Dr Diane Jacobson in The Lutheran, July 2005.

We speak honestly of what we know. God meets us there.

"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words" (Romans 8:26).

I often think the sighs of the Spirit are heard most clearly in the laments of the Psalms. Praying the laments is difficult. But so often they are our deepest and truest prayers...

Some say God, in utter grace, allows us to express such lamentation until the time we can return to faithfulness. But I contend that the importance and truth of our laments goes much deeper: To lament is to be faithful.

The lament, more than any other form of prayer, speaks directly to God of the reality of suffering. And God knows when our prayers are true. (emphasis added)

Consider the book of Job. Job's speech is rife with lamentation. He rails against the Almighty, throwing the issue of suffering into God's face, begging for a relationship that speaks to the truth of his loss and pain. Job's friends are appalled by his words, which they deem unfaithful. The friends reason that humans should never question God's motives but, in all humility, should accept suffering as the righteous judgment of a just God...

But in contrast to his friends, Job refused to overlook the depth of his suffering. He refused to protect God from his despair. He refused to believe God wasn't active in the world. Perhaps most importantly, Job continued to speak directly to God, praying for justice, relief and comfort. True prayer, true speech to and about God, never uses theological platitudes to deny the reality of the world.

The power of the lament is this: We come to God boldly, directly, defenses stripped away, with nothing standing between us and the Almighty. Standing thus, we can do nothing but speak the truth from our depth. This isn't to say that we suddenly have right understanding, only that we speak honestly of what we know. God meets us there.

"Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. ... I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word !hope" (Psalm 130:1, 5).

True prayer, true speech to and about God, never uses theological platitudes to deny the reality of the world.

Click here for the full article.

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.

Reflection: Power, privilege and social justice

Here are some thoughts on power, privilege and social justice.

For those of us who are in a relative position of power and privilege, social justice is an abstract notion of how to choose between different actions, personal lifestyles and public policies. For those who are poor and powerless, social injustice is about despair, hopelessness and, sadly for some, a matter of life and death.

Paul and poverty - Bruce Longenecker's new book

Just bought Bruce Longenecker's book called Remember the Poor: Paul, Poverty and the Greco-Roman World (Grant Rapids: Eerdmans), 2010. Here is what he says in the first chapter (page 1).

[C]are for the poor is shown to be an integral part of the "good news" that Paul preached... For Paul, economic assistance of the poor was not sufficient in and of itself, nor was it exhaustive of the good news of Jesus; but neither was it supplemental or peripheral to that good news. In fact, falling within the essentials of the good news, care for the poor was thought by Paul to be a necessary hallmark of the corporate life of Jesus-followers who lived in conformity with the good news of the early Jesus-movement.

Some reflections about knowing God

Here is my recent reflection about knowing God.

Without knowing the Crucified and Risen Christ we cannot truly know God.
Without following Christ's way of life we cannot be truly human as God intends.

And without knowing God how can we have the courage to follow Jesus' sacrificial way of life?
Yet without embodying his self-giving life how can we truly know him?

Reflection: Some thoughts about power

Here is a recent reflection.

The notion that power is in and of itself not evil and that we can have power as long as we use it properly sounds good (and indeed is quite right). But the problem is that when we are in a position of power we can hardly understand what it is like to be powerless. (Or if we have experienced powerlessness before, we can quite easily forget about what it is like if we now have a lot of power.) This in turn means that we probably don't know how to use power properly. Paul's resolve to boast in his weakness in 2 Corinthians has much to say to us today.