God Behaving Badly: Part One

On Thursday of this week I will begin my third year teaching Senior High Bible at Somonauk Christian School. Our Bible curriculum indicates that this year I will teach Old Testament Survey. I love the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments. I especially love the consistency of the narrative that begins with Genesis and “concludes” with The Revelation. It has become common amongst our church family for me to lift up my copy of the Scriptures and ask, “How many books am I holding?” And the answer, “One!” will resonate through the pews. I love the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, because within its pages I encounter the one God, my heavenly Father as I understand the Bible through the Spirit to testify of Christ, the only Begotten Son of the Father.

An Ancient Struggle

Nonetheless, I also understand the unity of the Bible is not easy to grasp. Certain aspects of God’s Word are indeed difficult to interpret in a way that leads to Christ and his unique and full revelation of the one God. From as early as the Second Century, the Church has struggled to read the Bible without describing the God of the Old Testament and the God and Father of Jesus as “other than one.” Marcion infamously professed the existence of two “gods” – One god is Yahweh, the creator and god of the Old Testament, while the other god is the Father of Jesus, the god of the New Testament. The good Bishop from Lyons, Irenaeus, came to Marcion and said something like this, “You’re free to believe that Marcion, but don’t call yourself, Christian.” More specifically, Irenaeus wrote this.

Marcion divides God into two, and calls one God good, the other just; and in so doing he destroys the divinity of both. For he who is just is not God if he is not also good; for if he lacks goodness he is not God; while he who is good without being just is similarly deprived of divinity (Against Heresies, III. xxv. 3).

Marcion fell in the all too common trap of understanding the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament as somehow different. Some folks may believe that, but they may not call themselves “Christian.” As Christians we believe in “one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.” The God who made heaven and earth and who is the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is one.

Within this ancient struggle to understand the Old and New Testaments as testifying to the reality of one God, David Lamb offers the Church his helpful book, God Behaving Badly: Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist?  David loves the Bible and is committed to the orthodox confession of the oneness of God revealed through the words of Scripture within both the Old and New Testaments. At the same time, however, he is honest with the struggle many of us have to understand the Bible to support such a confession. Because Lamb’s book will be required reading for the Juniors and Seniors in my Old Testament Survey Course, I thought it would be helpful to blog/email my way through it.   

But also …         

It doesn’t take long for Lamb to subvert the false assumption that God is nice in the New Testament and not so much in the Old Testament. In fact, he likes to begin the class he teaches by posing this question to his students.

How does one reconcile the loving God of the Old Testament with the harsh God of the New Testament?

You see there are many false assumptions behind the all too common perception that the God of the Old Testament is full of wrath and the God of the New Testament is full of love. The plain truth is there are many places in the Old Testament that describe God as overflowing with love and there are many places in the New Testament that describe God as acting out of wrath. For example the word, “hell” does not occur in our English translations of the Old Testament. In the ESV, “hell” occurs 14 times in the New Testament and 12 of them are from the lips of Jesus. Furthermore, when the apostle Paul begins to articulate his gospel message for the Roman Christians, he begins in this way:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth (Romans 1.18, ESV).

Furthermore, it is often asserted the God of the Old Testament is judgmental and unforgiving and the God of Jesus is quicker to forgive. This is plainly not the case. Just this morning, I read these words.

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared (Psalm 130,3-4, ESV).

Also notice these words from the Psalmist.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, not repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him (Psalm 103.8-11, ESV).     

Obviously a few Scripture citations will not resolve a struggle the Church has endured for more than 1,800 years. These references should remind us, however, to get in the habit of saying, “BUT ALSO.” You see almost anyone can find a proof text for anything. Stringing together proof texts does not good theology make. We arrive at “good theology” by interpreting the biblical text. Do difficult texts exist? Yes! But difficult texts must be interpreted like all texts. And I hope that David Lamb’s book can help the Church interpret both the Old and New Testaments in a way that is good and true and faithful and edifying and above all, Christian.

So I want us to get into the habit of saying, “BUT ALSO.” In other words, the God of the Bible can become really angry, BUT can ALSO be extraordinarily patient. In the Old Testament, God seemed to view women and wives as property, BUT he ALSO selected women as spiritual and political leaders over Israel. God commanded the Jews to “utterly destroy” the Canaanites, BUT ALSO commanded them to care for the poor, the widows, the orphans and the Canaanites.

Bottom Line: A Hermeneutic of Humility

In one of his final concerts Rich Mullins talked about the peril of proof texting, and then he said this: “When God gave us the Bible it was to prove that God is right and the rest of us are just guessing.” I appreciate those words from the late singer/songwriter because they are a humble acknowledgment that understanding God’s Word can only take place within the humble confession that God is God and we are not. This is what I call a hermeneutic of humility. In other words the Bible will not be understood by those who seek to master it but by those who seek to be mastered by the God who gave us the Bible. I believe that God wants to be known and one of the ways he wants to be known is through the Bible. We need to be motivated by a humble desire to know God as we open the sacred text and that text will be over abundantly full of complexities – kind of like the God who gave it to us. Amen.      

Grace Takes the Blame ...

According to former Miami Dolphin Receiver, Chad Johnson, his wife head-butted him. According to Mr. Johnson’s wife, he head-butted her. Following these most recent troubles, the Dolphins terminated the controversial NFL wide receiver’s contract. And the narrative of passing the blame that started in the Garden of Eden goes on and on.

This morning I looked out the front window and thanked God for last evening’s rain. A few moments later I looked out the kitchen window into our backyard and noticed the toys and games my kids had left out in the rain. In this moment, I felt less than thankful for the evening rain. Next I noticed two books I have been reading that had also been left out in the rain. Please believe me when I tell you, this is the thought I had!! “Why didn’t those kids bring my books inside?” Immediately, I thought to myself my kids shouldn’t be responsible to pick up after their daddy. As I retrieved my treasured books, now saturated, I had this thought, “Why didn’t Yulinda bring in the books?” And the narrative of passing the blame that started in the Garden goes on and on.

There is something within our fallen nature, when confronted with our sin, that “naturally” elicits a response that passes the blame to someone or something else. It wasn’t me Lord, is was “the woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Don’t blame me, God. It was “the serpent [who] deceived me, and I ate.” It wasn’t my negligence, Lord. It was those kids you gave me – they distracted me! It wasn’t my forgetfulness. It was the wife you gave me – I thought she was collecting my books! And the narrative of passing the blame that started in the Garden goes on and on.

As we begin another week, I would like us to contemplate another narrative about blame in another Garden. The narrative goes something like this. Jesus, the Second Adam, is in the garden of Gethsemane. He is undergoing unimaginable temptation to not trust his Abba and work for his own will on earth. He doesn’t want to obey, but in this moment, instead of trusting his own resources, he asks for help from some trusted friends.

My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me (Matthew 26.38, NIV).

He doesn’t like the direction obedience is taking him, but in this moment, instead of trusting his own feelings, he prays.

My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will (Matthew 26.39, NIV).

Jesus went away yet another time and proclaimed to his Father that no matter what he would always utter these words, “may your will be done.”

When the first Adam was tempted in a similar Garden, he said to God, “my will be done.” And when he was confronted with his sin, he passed the blame. When the second Adam underwent a Garden temptation, he said to God, “your will be done” and full of grace and truth, he took the blame that the first Adam and all his sons and daughters deserve.

Thanks be to God for the Lord Jesus, our second Adam, who instead of passing the blame, took the blame for our sin, that we might enjoy union with him as sons and daughters of God. Often times we are encouraged to “own what’s ours.” That is all well and good. When we hear those words, however, we should be reminded that Christ owned what was yours and mine, so we could be free from the burden of sin’s consequence. When someone tells you to own what’s yours, say thanks to Jesus for owning it for you! 

Furthermore, the narrative of the Second Adam in the Second Garden must give us our identity. We identify with the First Adam when we pass the blame. We were meant to live for so much more. The Grace of the Second Adam takes the blame, because I don’t have to be burdened by it anymore. Jesus took it for me. Thanks be to God!!  

Fasting for Guidance

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8.3, NIV).

We are often faced with a decision for which there is no clear answer. So we follow the wisdom of Proverbs and seek advice from a few trusted counselors. How do we proceed, however, when the wisdom of our counselors proves contradictory? It is in these moments I believe our kind Father is pleased to allow the conceptual fog to remain that we main learn at least two lessons. 1) God is God and we are not. When I fail to come to grips with how exactly to proceed in a complicated situation I must learn to trust my heavenly Father as I tentatively advance down the path I think I believe he is opening for me. It is during these times our trust muscles get their greatest workout. The discomfort of the disorientation created by the fog of uncertainty can sometimes cause us to hastily choose the path of surety when God has really provided no indication of the direction we should take. Sometimes the fog is a gift from which we must not flee.

The second lesson these complicated decisions can teach us is 2) Life is ambiguous and God never intended otherwise. I went through a period in my Christian and pastoral life when I thought there was a verse for everything. Every decision … every conviction … every practice must have clear biblical precedent and if we couldn’t find it we simply had not searched hard or long enough. This led to a quasi-form of Bible Deism. In other words, God had given the Bible to us as the definitive word for all time and now there really was no need for him to communicate with or be involved in the lives of his people. Aside from the many Biblical reasons (!) this perspective is wrong-headed, my first six months in ministry were enough to teach me that the Bible does not address every possible scenario. In other words, there will be many times when we are faced with a decision for which there is not clear Biblical direction. The Bible may offer applicable principles – the Bible may establish a trajectory that we must follow together in order to learn what is the wise choice to make. However, this reality requires us to live our lives in community, in active dependence upon the wisdom Christ has granted to the Church.

Scot McKnight reminded me this morning that God’s people have traditionally fasted during times when they yearned to know God’s will. I believe God desires to communicate with his people. He does not want us waver helplessly – wondering what to do. He exhorts us to live in active dependence upon the Spirit of God by engaging in disciplines that open us up to the Spirit’s movement. In Ezra 8, the people of God were on the verge of returning to the Promised Land after staying in Babylon far too long. They knew it was God’s will for them to return home. Under the leadership of Ezra, they paused, however, at the river Ahava and fasted in order to seek guidance and protection from Yahweh. The word, “paused,” is chosen intentionally. Don’t you think they would have been in a hurry to get home after spending so much time exiled? The wisdom of God’s prophet led them to wait – to wait in order to deny themselves of comfort and pleasure in order to seek what they desired more –  the presence and guidance of Almighty God. The early Church followed this same tradition. In Acts 13 prophets and teachers had gathered with the Church at Antioch shortly after Herod had died.

While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off (Acts 13.2-3, ESV).

We are provided here, with an excellent example of the ministry the Holy Spirit longs to accomplish within the worship life of the local church. Based upon this example in Acts, I believe the Holy Spirit intends to work and speak and move within our midst when we worship together and when we engage in the sacred discipline of fasting together.

Do our Spiritual desires have a bodily response? How desperately do we long to know God’s will? How much do I desire greater union with God? Is my enjoyment of fellowship with God greater than the satisfaction provided by Subway’s Spicy Italian sandwich?

Father, awaken with us a greater yearning for communion with you.  Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God of the Living God, have mercy on me a glutton.  

               

Fasting as Body Training

“Fasting is a person’s whole-body, natural response to life’s sacred moments.” Our exploration together of the mysterious discipline of fasting has been unpacking this definition by Scot McKnight. Personally I have been struck by the truth that fasting is a whole-body act. In other words there are times when we feel out of sync – times when our “soul” desires one thing, but our body desires another. Our soul desires to have the sin of lust defeated. Our body longs to surrender to lust. All too often, the body wins. This is related to fasting in that fasting is not only a turning of the body toward the soul, but it is also a training of the body by the soul. The Apostle Paul says something similar in his first letter to the Corinthians.

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified (1 Cor 7.24-27, ESV, emphasis added).

Self-control, this last aspect of the fruit of the Spirit, is one that our culture does not value. Sadly, the church has followed the values of the culture. When was the last time you heard a sermon on self-control? Gluttony? Fasting? Moreover, notice some of the aspects of the fruit of the Flesh that the Apostle records in Galatians 5.19-21 – sexual immorality, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, envy, drunkenness and orgies. Each of these is in direct opposition to self-control. Aspects of the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of Spirit both involve bodily actions. Thus, the transforming work of the Spirit will involve the syncing of the body and the Spirit – the training of the body to keep in step with the Spirit (Gal 5.25). 

God’s Word encourages us to engage in practices of faith (i.e. spiritual disciplines) that will enable us to live by the Spirit and to keep in step with him (Gal 5.25). It is within this context that we should understand all the spiritual disciplines and especially fasting. Because we desire to inherit the kingdom of God (Gal 5.21), we must engage in practices that will open our souls and bodies to the transforming presence and power of the Spirit. Because the Apostle Paul did not want to be disqualified (1 Cor 9.27), he disciplined his body to keep in under control.

I have come to learn that fasting is a gift to God’s people to train the body to listen and obey what the Holy Spirit is saying to the soul. We are embodied persons.  Therefore, God desires his saving work of transformation to not only include the soul but also the body. The “Spiritual” life includes “bodily” actions. Have you ever considered fasting in this light?

Fasting as Body Turning: Part Two

In chapter 3 of his book, Fasting, Scot McKnight takes us on a simple journey through the ways the Bible describes the sacred discipline of fasting. Last week we explored how the Bible exhorts us to fast for corporate confession, namely, during events like Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, or seasons such as Lent or Good Friday. Now Scot describes the biblical example of fasting when God seems absent.

Let’s be honest, each of us has experienced times and even seasons during which God’s presence is nowhere to be found. “Most of us know the dryness of prayer or the low ceiling off which some of our prayers seem to bounce.” It’s during these times that Holy Scripture exhorts us to sensitively communicate with God through fasting.

In 1 Samuel 4, God’s Word records for us a time in which God’s presence was actually stolen from God’s people by their enemies, the Philistines. Specifically, the Ark of the Covenant, which represents God’s presence, was captured from God’s people by the enemies of God’s people. Eli, who had guided the Jews for forty years, heard of the Ark’s demise, fell over backward, broke his neck and died. His tragic death punctuates the severe trauma God’s people were enduring at the hand of the Philistines. This was a grievous moment for the Israelites and this grief created a dark momentum that Samuel responds to in chapter seven, with these words to the people.

“If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only. Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you” (1 Sam 7.3-5, ESV).

So the people gathered at Mizpah and fasted together as a way of responding to the horror of the departure of God’s presence, the tragedy of Eli’s death and to confess their sins to God.

When tragedy strikes us, when God’s presence seems to depart from us, when our life of prayer has stalled, the example God’s Word sets forth is to turn our bodies toward the direction our souls are feeling as a way of seeking the presence and victory of God. Although this must not motivate our fast (remember fasting is responsive), this way of seeking God’s presence and victory often ushers in the presence and victory of God (cf. 1 Sam 7.6-12).

Has God’s presence been stolen away from you by an enemy? Has tragedy made it difficult to enter into communion with God in ways you have known before? Has to busyness of life relegated the life of faith to near absence? I exhort you to read and meditate on 1 Samuel 4-7 and ask the Lord to guide your response to the grievous absence of God’s presence in your life.

Fasting as Body Turning: Part One

According to Scot McKnight, “Fasting is a person’s whole-body, natural response to life’s sacred moments.” In Chapter three he unpacks what he means by “fasting as body turning.” In chapters one and two, Scot described a biblical view of self that unifies the body and soul. There is an undeniable link in the Bible between the material and immaterial. The Bible does not divide body and spirit, as we are often tempted. Instead, the Bible exhorts us to participate in practices that highlight and strengthen the unity between body and spirit. Hence, the sacred practice of fasting. 

The most frequent form of fasting in the Bible is intimately related to an organic unity between body and spirit. The Bible often describes fasting as turning of the body toward the spirit during sacred moments when God’s people are called to a corporate confession of sin. In the contemporary church “very serious moments” like confession of sin rarely lead to fasting. Scot asks us: “Is there a need for a place in our church calendar – not just universal but also local – for repentance as a group by fasting?” We seem very accustomed to calling people together in order to feast (potlucks, barbecues and banquets), but how anxious are we to come together in order to fast. The Bible seems to assume the importance of a corporate bringing together of the body and the spirit by calling God’s people to fast together. Once again the Bible confronts our American sense of self. We are familiar with individual repentance and keeping the idea of sin as something between God and me. God’s Word, on the other hand, calls the people of God to confess our sins together. For many of us, fasting is a private matter. Not so much – in the Bible.

The most common corporate confession of sin in the Bible that led to fasting was Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement.

Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord (Leviticus 23.27, ESV).

The Hebrews were not allowed to do any work during Yom Kippur (23.28). This was such a serious requirement that anyone who did not comply with the requirement by working or not fasting was to be cut off from God’s people and would be destroyed (23.29-30). The people were not only instructed to refrain from food and work. The self-denial extended to such an extreme that they were not allowed to wash or anoint themselves. They slept on the floor. They refused friendship. They also abstained from sexual intercourse. The reason for such severe requirements for an entire day was “to bring their entire person into harmony with the gravity of sin and the need to turn from sin toward God.”

What relevance does this have for us living as Christians in 2012? I do believe we should awaken the discipline of corporate confession of sin that leads to fasting. Scot recommends something like communities of faith entering into a Good Friday fast because that is the day we remember the ultimate Day of Atonement. What are your thoughts?

Always Bad

Here’s a brief proposition.

Death is always bad.

Our church family is in a bit of a fragile state because one of us is no longer with us. Vera Cook’s funeral service was today. It was an amazing service in which I was able to participate. However, even the best funeral services are always enveloped in darkness, because it is a funeral service. Whether it is the Wake/Visitation or the funeral service itself, we all struggle with what we should say to the grieving. “I’m sorry” is usually the safest and most helpful thing to say. Often times a well-intentioned desire to comfort the grieving results in statements that downplay how bad death is. It is these well-intentioned statements that I would like to address briefly. Death is bad and when we downplay its badness we can impose guilt and be very unhelpful to the grieving.

Some clarifying remarks. Please notice my proposition states that death is bad. I’m not asserting that the end of suffering is bad. I would never want to say that “going to heaven” is bad. I am simply stating that the means by which most of us will arrive in heaven, namely death, is bad.

Why is death bad? I would like to offer at least two reasons.  

1) Death is bad because it destroys the design of God’s good creation. The creation narrative describes what God in his goodness originally intended.

then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature (Gen 2.7, ESV).

 These words from the creation narrative should shape how we think about life and death. God shapes the form of man from the dust of the earth, places him on top of the soil and breathes into him the breath of God’s life and man becomes what God designs. Death is bad because it is the undoing of what our good God created and intended. Death reverses the creation of God. Death steals the breath of life from a human God created. Death forces that human back under the soil that God had overcome through his act of creation. Death destroys what God formed returning his creation back to dust. Because it destroys the design of God’s good creation, death is always bad.

2) Death is bad because resurrection is so good. What we often read in the Bible as referring to life after death is what should really be called “life after life after death.” In other words we do have a few phrases here and there like, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ” (Philippians 1.23) and “being away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5.8). The majority of times, however, when God’s Word is plainly discussing our future hope, we are being promised, not something after we die, we are rather being promised a world without death because the world will one day be overcome by resurrection. My favorite description of that plain hope is found in 2 Cor 5.1-5

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed (i.e. death), we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (resurrection body).  For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.  He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee (ESV).

From this passage the hope of New Testament comes into focus. Paul’s hope is not that one day he will die and get to heaven. Now it is true that when Paul died, he did go to heaven and for that he was thankful (Phil 1.23; 2 Cor 5.8). Still the true hope of the Apostle is that one day he will receive his resurrection body that God is protecting for him in heaven. In fact, Paul longs to put on that body without being found naked. He desires to be clothed from above without having to go through the process of earthly death, because death, even if it leads to something good, is always a bad thing. Thanks be to God, a generation of believers will receive their resurrection bodies without having to endure the undoing of God’s creative design. This is why the Bible refers to death as our last enemy that is not yet subjected to the Lordship of Christ (1 Cor 15.25-28). I suppose another reason we could say death is bad is because it continues to rebel against Jesus as Lord. Death claimed another victim today. But thanks be to God, one day death will become a victim, itself.

With the hope of the New Testament in mind, we are now able to respond appropriately to Vera’s death. Death is not a blessing. Death is not a good thing? Are we glad she is no longer suffering? Yes. Are we glad she has been reunited with Lowell, her husband? Absolutely. Are we thrilled to know that she is in the presence of Jesus? Certainly. We grieve, however, because a bad thing happened to Vera. We are sad because death has taken someone we love from us. We groan because we have once again been reminded that all things have not been made new, that the world is not as God intended. We grieve and mourn however as those who have hope, because one day God will damn death to hell, forever. And on that day, those whom death has taken will rise and God will transform their bodies to incorruptibility, breathe into them the breath of life and Vera will exclaim will countless others “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 15.57, ESV).