We've met with the Pilot Project group the last two weeks, and looks like lots more meetings to come in the near future! A couple weeks ago our group decided to try to plant a little bit earlier than the nearest large scale rice growing region in order to try to get the best of both worlds in terms of the season and also in terms of hopefully harvesting and selling their rice just before their competitors do.
Two weeks ago we invited a local bank that does microfinance with farmers to come and try to sell their loan products to our group. Just yesterday we discussed the pros and cons of taking a loan, and Beth, who holds a MA degree in microfinance, made sure that everyone understood that there were real risks involved. Thankfully, because of a lot of outside grants from the Kenyan government and a host of foreign aid types including Bill Gates, the bank the farmers have basically decided to take loans from has fairly low interest rates and works hard to reduce the risk for the farmers (they don't take land as collateral for instance, and allow repayment terms to be set by crop cycles). And while all of that outside money will one day dry up, for the time being, it seems that the farmers may really be able to take advantage of a relatively less-risky business investment through the use of these loans. If they can, that in and of itself will be an accomplishment: we will have helped a group of farmers who have the land and irrigation to really improve their lives through agriculture to connect to a local credit provider who can help them long after we're gone.
The group decided to plant the seeds in the nursery by late June, meaning that tunakimbia haraka haraka (we are running fast) to get everything ready before then. The farmers came up with a list of things that need to happen before planting, including an exposure visit to a research center and another irrigation group, accessing the loans (not exactly a simple or straightforward process), and getting seeds and fertilizer and the like.
Pray for our farmers this week through all of this, because they've committed to a pretty aggressive plan for getting everything together, and we're going to really begin to see how serious these folks are! Also, please pray for our aloe vera farmers, who are hosting a potential buyer tomorrow who, if he goes through with the deal, would put something like 700 bucks in the group's bank account. Especially since these farmers have been working hard for a long time without really knowing if this was going to work out, this would be a huge blessing. Kenyan business is notoriously tricky; there's every likelihood that this guy will back out. So pray!!
This morning I read through parts of Hosea and Psalm 51 as part of my morning devotional readings. Reading through Hosea is like walking into the middle of a house where the wife has just told her husband she's been sleeping with somebody else. And as blasphemous as it sounds, that seems to be exactly how Yahweh characterizes his relationship with his people through the word spoken to Hosea. "Your love is like the morning mist," the Father groans. "Here one moment and gone the next." For all of our theological talk about the immutability of God's character, in this book at least God seems to be wrestling with his hatred of Israel's idolatry, and his literal inability to let them go because of His love for them. "My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. For I am God, and not man . . . I will not come in wrath."
To think that our sin and rebellion wounds the heart of our creator! Can we really grasp it, can we really believe that the Triune God loves us like a husband, grieves over our prostitution like a jilted lover, calls us back even in the midst of his anger because of his inextinguishable love for us?
After reading this I turned to Psalm 51, David's prayer of repentance, and the two passages dove-tailed in my mind powerfully. Here the Israelite king is repenting, but at every turn he calls on God to act; even the acknoweldgement and knowledge of his sin comes only from God. "Have mercy . . . wash away . . cleanse . . . wash . . . let me hear . . . hide your face . . . create . . . renew . . . restore . . . save . . . open my lips!" The verbs pour poetically out of David's mouth, with nearly all the action dependent on God's own divine initiative. We like faithless Israel and lustful David have cursed our creator, have cheated on our divine husband. But it is God alone who can act, He alone who can speak the words of power that will turn the tables and invites us back to the wedding feast. We can do nothing! Not even praise; it is God who must open our lips and allow us to worship Him.
As you pray for our farmers and for us this week, please also pray for the church worldwide, that we would feel Christ's overwhelming love and that we would be able to remain in it, to live in it, to swim in the ocean of that divine love, and to let that love shine out into the world, drawing folks from every tribe and nation to its light.
Peace,
Michael
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Some Happenings
Over the last few weeks, we've had some cool opportunities to travel, both for fun and for work. Here's what we've been up to:
Easter in Bungoma
The Khisas consider me to be their African son, so this was something of a homecoming for me. But it was even more weighty for Rebecca, something along the lines of "Meet the Parents: Africa" (see the picture of the daughter-in-law bearing gifts above). Kenyans are really great as a people, but the Khisas are really special. As we walked up to St. Crispins Anglican Church for the Good Friday service, having arrived only an hour before after a 10 hour bus ride, I could hear Kistos preaching inside, and immediately remembered the power and sincerity that he brings to the pulpit. But more astounding, especially when pastors everywhere and maybe particularly in places like Kenya can easily fall into the temptation of acting like "big men" or the boss, was the way that Kistos humbly and graciously loves his family and his congregation. We were so encouraged by this incredible family, and praise God for their work.
It was also really fun to get to run into the neighborhood children and families along the dirt road that leads to their home, the road that I walked up and down every day for three months. White folks are an anomaly everywhere in this country, but particularly in places like Bungoma, and it was really beautiful to have people constantly coming up and saying, 'oh I remember you, the Kisha's American son has come back to visit!"
I also got a chance to catch up with my old coworker Joseph (if you remember the story about me on the back of the motorbike carrying a chicken, he was the primary player in that tale). His wife served us chicken, and his kids had gotten so big, and he told me news of all the groups I used to visit. He also gave me phone numbers so that I could catch up with a few other folks in CCS who I had hoped to meet.
And most importantly, Rebecca got a chance to have her first boda boda ride (public transportation on the back of a bicycle. Only 15 cents). Check out the pic.
In short, it was a beautiful way to celebrate the resurrection with old friends. Drinking chai under an avocado tree, I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the gift God has given me through Kenya, both now and through that trip in 2007 where my life was changed in profound ways that I am still now discovering. There is something beautiful and strange about being in a place you love that you may never be in again, something that reminds us somehow of the kingdom to come. If you pray for us this week, take a minute to thank God for the Khisas, and to ask for His blessing on St. Crispins church and on their life and ministry in Bungoma.
I’ve had the chance to visit most of our groups over the past couple of weeks as well. In the sunflower groups, we have finally begun processing sunflower oil, and I actually brought home a liter of the finished product last week! This has been a long, often painful process, so please pray that we keep moving steadily forward and that after a long wait this sunflower oil will help the members of our community groups get some income for their families.
In Murang’a with the Pilot Project we’ve begun discussing how to go about this rice planting. In our last meeting, the group committed to planting by late June in order to try to hit the ideal growing season but also to time their harvest so as to be able to sell their product before the large rice growing region nearby begins to harvest theirs. We also discussed ways of getting less active members more involved, and developed guidelines for rice production. Soon we are hoping to be able to visit the government’s nearby research center specifically devoted to rice, as well as to visit another group of farmers that is using an irrigation scheme as the foundation for group agricultural business. Tomorrow (Thursday), our coworker Beth is bringing a representative from Equity Bank to discuss potential loan options for the group.
Our aloe vera farmers continue to battle disease problems, but the aloe vera seems to be nearing maturity in some areas. A new coworker, Peter Durito, has been furiously working to develop a marketing plan, and it looks like we might be able to sell some soon if everything goes well. Please pray for this, as marketing a new product is always difficult, and our goal is not just to help the farmers sell the crop but to connect them to the market in such a way that they can do it on their own. This will be difficult!
And although I haven’t been up there in months, I got a good report over the phone on the farmers from Ngare Ndare. Apparently they are still busy growing onions, and the group is still meeting regularly. I’m hoping to head up there with Rebecca sometime in May.
Teaching
There are times when you can tell Jesus has got it covered. Rebecca and I recently experienced this through a new cool opportunity for her. For a whole host of reasons, Rebecca has been feeling like she may want to teach in the future. Rebecca studied Philosophy at Covenant, and never really thought much about teaching, but she was a substitute in Memphis and has lately felt like that might be something she’d like to do one day. We’ve been praying about that, and lo and behold, Rosslyn International School, the Christian missionary school 10 minutes from our house where Rebecca has coached, asked her to start subbing. She enjoyed it, and began to think more seriously about this teaching thing. “Well, what do you think you might want to teach?” I asked. After some thought, she began to think that English in middle school or high school might be a good fit. And so (of course) she got asked to sub for three weeks as a middle school English teacher. So right now I’m flying solo at work and she’s flying solo with 4 classes of middle schoolers every day. So far it has been really fun, and you can pray that this would be a good experience for her.
There’s a lot more going on, particularly with some new opportunities to serve at New City Fellowship. But this post is long, so we’ll save those for another day. Keep praying for us, for the work, and for the people of Kenya.
Peace,
Michael
Followers of the "Dude Goes to Africa" blog will remember that in 2007 I had the privelege of living and working in western Kenya for 3 months. During that time I stayed at the home of Kistos and Petrinilla Khisa and worked for Western Region Christian Community Services, a sister organization to our current partner in ministry through Planting Faith. Kistos and Petrinilla's son David now works for Toyota in Nairobi and he and his sisters have been some of our best friends here in Nairobi. Over Easter, David took us on the over-night bus to Bungoma to visit his family and reconnect with old friends.
It was also really fun to get to run into the neighborhood children and families along the dirt road that leads to their home, the road that I walked up and down every day for three months. White folks are an anomaly everywhere in this country, but particularly in places like Bungoma, and it was really beautiful to have people constantly coming up and saying, 'oh I remember you, the Kisha's American son has come back to visit!"
David took us on a hike that Brandon and Lily Russell, David, and I had done in 2007. The trail goes up this huge rock that rises out of the western landscape and gives you a great view of the miles upon miles of small farms receding off into the distance in every direction that make that part of the world so beautiful. This was also a pretty sweet time for David and I, who had stood in that same place three years ago and who have really grown together through our somewhat strange and unlikely friendship. Jesus has given Rebecca and I the opportunity to travel all over the world and make many lasting memories. But perhaps at the end of the day we haven't made quite so many lasting friendships on our travels, and the Khisas stand out as a noteable and God-given exception.
I also got a chance to catch up with my old coworker Joseph (if you remember the story about me on the back of the motorbike carrying a chicken, he was the primary player in that tale). His wife served us chicken, and his kids had gotten so big, and he told me news of all the groups I used to visit. He also gave me phone numbers so that I could catch up with a few other folks in CCS who I had hoped to meet.
And most importantly, Rebecca got a chance to have her first boda boda ride (public transportation on the back of a bicycle. Only 15 cents). Check out the pic.
In short, it was a beautiful way to celebrate the resurrection with old friends. Drinking chai under an avocado tree, I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the gift God has given me through Kenya, both now and through that trip in 2007 where my life was changed in profound ways that I am still now discovering. There is something beautiful and strange about being in a place you love that you may never be in again, something that reminds us somehow of the kingdom to come. If you pray for us this week, take a minute to thank God for the Khisas, and to ask for His blessing on St. Crispins church and on their life and ministry in Bungoma. Work Stuff
I’ve had the chance to visit most of our groups over the past couple of weeks as well. In the sunflower groups, we have finally begun processing sunflower oil, and I actually brought home a liter of the finished product last week! This has been a long, often painful process, so please pray that we keep moving steadily forward and that after a long wait this sunflower oil will help the members of our community groups get some income for their families.
In Murang’a with the Pilot Project we’ve begun discussing how to go about this rice planting. In our last meeting, the group committed to planting by late June in order to try to hit the ideal growing season but also to time their harvest so as to be able to sell their product before the large rice growing region nearby begins to harvest theirs. We also discussed ways of getting less active members more involved, and developed guidelines for rice production. Soon we are hoping to be able to visit the government’s nearby research center specifically devoted to rice, as well as to visit another group of farmers that is using an irrigation scheme as the foundation for group agricultural business. Tomorrow (Thursday), our coworker Beth is bringing a representative from Equity Bank to discuss potential loan options for the group.
Our aloe vera farmers continue to battle disease problems, but the aloe vera seems to be nearing maturity in some areas. A new coworker, Peter Durito, has been furiously working to develop a marketing plan, and it looks like we might be able to sell some soon if everything goes well. Please pray for this, as marketing a new product is always difficult, and our goal is not just to help the farmers sell the crop but to connect them to the market in such a way that they can do it on their own. This will be difficult!
And although I haven’t been up there in months, I got a good report over the phone on the farmers from Ngare Ndare. Apparently they are still busy growing onions, and the group is still meeting regularly. I’m hoping to head up there with Rebecca sometime in May.
Teaching
There are times when you can tell Jesus has got it covered. Rebecca and I recently experienced this through a new cool opportunity for her. For a whole host of reasons, Rebecca has been feeling like she may want to teach in the future. Rebecca studied Philosophy at Covenant, and never really thought much about teaching, but she was a substitute in Memphis and has lately felt like that might be something she’d like to do one day. We’ve been praying about that, and lo and behold, Rosslyn International School, the Christian missionary school 10 minutes from our house where Rebecca has coached, asked her to start subbing. She enjoyed it, and began to think more seriously about this teaching thing. “Well, what do you think you might want to teach?” I asked. After some thought, she began to think that English in middle school or high school might be a good fit. And so (of course) she got asked to sub for three weeks as a middle school English teacher. So right now I’m flying solo at work and she’s flying solo with 4 classes of middle schoolers every day. So far it has been really fun, and you can pray that this would be a good experience for her.
There’s a lot more going on, particularly with some new opportunities to serve at New City Fellowship. But this post is long, so we’ll save those for another day. Keep praying for us, for the work, and for the people of Kenya.
Peace,
Michael
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Easter Reflections: Resurrection Hope
And if Christ has not been raised our preaching is useless and so is your faith . . . But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn, Christ the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. (I Corinthians 15: 14, 20-23)
Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! . . . For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romas 11:33, 36)
This then is the conclusion of the matter: without the resurrection of the Christ, we are all lost and hopeless. We languish in a good created world gone horribly and permanently wrong, we kill and curse our fellow image-bearers for lack of the good and gracious King we had dared dream might return to claim his kingdom, we fight and fret in our small, racially bound families for lack of the freedom to be members of the greater kingdom family we cannot dare dream might really exist. In short, without the resurrection, we have neither a world to live in, nor a king to kneel to, nor a family to love, nor any hope for the future at all. We are hopeless.
But oh the depths and riches of God! What no eye could see nor ear could hear nor mind could perceive he has done for us through Jesus. He has given his perfect Son on the cross to be killed by our last and greatest enemy death, and he has raised that same Jesus from the dead that, through the Holy Spirit, he might be the salvation of the world, the firstfruits of the new creation, the king over all things, and the first-born son of a new and truly human family comprised of all the nations of the world. The resurrection salvation we have in Christ is not fire-insurance; it is the hope of the promise of a new life in a new creation world in a new creation kingdom with a new elder brother at the head of a new family and a glorious king to rule all of it in righteousness and joy. It is the promise that death doesn't have the last word. The Risen Christ does. He has gone before us, paving the way for us to follow him in sharing in his sufferings . . . and so somehow to attain the resurrection of the dead.
The Scriptures give us one gigantic and gloriously true fairytale that begins with a world wrecked and shattered to the very core by the rebellious sin of humanity, and ends with a Lamb returning to that wrecked order with the new heavens and the new earth coming behind to make His blessings known as far as the curse is found. And standing at the center, the axis around which this cosmic story spins, is the risen Jesus calling our name in the garden on Easter. The risen Christ calls us to look back to creation and forward to the second coming and find the downpayment for all the glorious promises paid for on Easter Sunday morning at daybreak.
We are all of us as dead as doornails from the day of our conception, and the day we're born we find ourselves born into a tomb. But praise the LORD it is the tomb of Jesus, and on the first day of a new week in April Jesus burst open that tomb and led us wretched captives out into the glorious Sunday morning Easter light of a new life in Him. If any of us are in Christ, we stand blinking in the sunlight of the second garden, the Easter garden, the beginning of a new beginning in which "every morning is Easter, every day." And like Thomas we fall at the feet of the risen Jesus and say "my lord and my God." King, Creator, elder-brother . . . our first and last and only hope.
Peace,
Michael
Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! . . . For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romas 11:33, 36)
This then is the conclusion of the matter: without the resurrection of the Christ, we are all lost and hopeless. We languish in a good created world gone horribly and permanently wrong, we kill and curse our fellow image-bearers for lack of the good and gracious King we had dared dream might return to claim his kingdom, we fight and fret in our small, racially bound families for lack of the freedom to be members of the greater kingdom family we cannot dare dream might really exist. In short, without the resurrection, we have neither a world to live in, nor a king to kneel to, nor a family to love, nor any hope for the future at all. We are hopeless.
But oh the depths and riches of God! What no eye could see nor ear could hear nor mind could perceive he has done for us through Jesus. He has given his perfect Son on the cross to be killed by our last and greatest enemy death, and he has raised that same Jesus from the dead that, through the Holy Spirit, he might be the salvation of the world, the firstfruits of the new creation, the king over all things, and the first-born son of a new and truly human family comprised of all the nations of the world. The resurrection salvation we have in Christ is not fire-insurance; it is the hope of the promise of a new life in a new creation world in a new creation kingdom with a new elder brother at the head of a new family and a glorious king to rule all of it in righteousness and joy. It is the promise that death doesn't have the last word. The Risen Christ does. He has gone before us, paving the way for us to follow him in sharing in his sufferings . . . and so somehow to attain the resurrection of the dead.
The Scriptures give us one gigantic and gloriously true fairytale that begins with a world wrecked and shattered to the very core by the rebellious sin of humanity, and ends with a Lamb returning to that wrecked order with the new heavens and the new earth coming behind to make His blessings known as far as the curse is found. And standing at the center, the axis around which this cosmic story spins, is the risen Jesus calling our name in the garden on Easter. The risen Christ calls us to look back to creation and forward to the second coming and find the downpayment for all the glorious promises paid for on Easter Sunday morning at daybreak.
We are all of us as dead as doornails from the day of our conception, and the day we're born we find ourselves born into a tomb. But praise the LORD it is the tomb of Jesus, and on the first day of a new week in April Jesus burst open that tomb and led us wretched captives out into the glorious Sunday morning Easter light of a new life in Him. If any of us are in Christ, we stand blinking in the sunlight of the second garden, the Easter garden, the beginning of a new beginning in which "every morning is Easter, every day." And like Thomas we fall at the feet of the risen Jesus and say "my lord and my God." King, Creator, elder-brother . . . our first and last and only hope.
Peace,
Michael
Friday, April 9, 2010
Easter Reflections: Resurrection Community
Babel came before the blessing. The moment Moses finishes telling us about the tongue-tied workers at Babel he begins telling us about the genealogy of Abraham. Before Babel humanity was one nation, one people, one tribe. And somewhat contrary to our modern sensibilities, this wasn't all peaches and cream, or even advantageous for city planning. The men and women of the world merely used their linguistic homogeneity as an excuse to go to new heights in defying their Creator. So out of the nations, God calls Abraham to become the father of a new nation, a father of a new faith, the father of a new beginning as God's holy people.
But the promise was never for Abraham's ethnic descendants alone. From the very beginning, God declared that he would give Abraham a land, a nation, a people . . . and that through him, all the nations of the world would be blessed. That's right. As soon as God got done scattering the wicked rebelious people of the world to the winds, he started working on a plan to bless them and bring them back.
Of course for most of their history the Israelite nation seemed happy to end with the "you'll be a great nation," and "I'll curse those who curse you," and just kind of forget about the "all peoples" part. But God didn't, and neither did His faithful prophets. Just listen to Isaiah in the final chapter of his prophecy:
"And I, because of their actions and their imaginations, am about to come and gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my glory . . . I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations . . . to the distant lands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. And they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain . . . And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites," says the LORD. As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me," declares the LORD, "so will your name and descenants endure . . . all mankind will come and bow down before me." (Isaiah 66)
Isaiah prophesied that God would raise up Israel as a light to the nations, and that the nations would stream to that light. But Israel fell short. Their sin kept them from being God's ambassadors to the world, just as the world's sin had kept the rest of humanity from responding to God's call. They far too often chose to reinforce the divisions between "the chosen" and the rest, rather than boldly going to the nations as Isaiah had prophesied. So since God didn't fulfill this promise through "faithful Israel," how did he fulfill it? As N.T. Wright puts it, when Israel failed in faithfulness, God fulfilled His covenant throught "the faithful Israelite," Jesus the Christ.
The Risen Christ is the beginning of the end of the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that through him, all nations would be blessed. At Babel God had scattered the nations, and at Sinai God had separated His people from all the other nations of the world. But through the resurrection Christ called all the nations back unto Himself. He became our inter-ethnic peace, by making the two one and [destroying] the barrier the dividing wall of hostility . . . His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility (Ephesians 2). In the context of Paul's other teaching in the resurrection, I am convinced that this language about the "one man out of the two" is a direct reference to the resurrection. Whereas at the cross Jesus put to death our hostility, in the resurrection he united all flesh in himself, by becoming the first fruits of the new heavens and the new earth, the older brother of a new human family for the glory of God. The faithful Israelite has fulfilled Isaiah's vision: He has survived the wrath of God, He has gone to the nations, He has brought them to his father, and He has found them through His resurrection to be His brothers before the Father.
When the Spirit came in power at Pentecost, it was this blessing to the nations that gave Peter the opportunity to declare that through the resurrection and ascension of the Christ, Jesus had received the Spirit and poured it out on them in power. Are not all these men Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Capadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism; Cretans and Arabs- we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues! Amazed and perplexed they asked one another, 'What does this mean?' Luke is practically shouting at us now. Here are all the nations of the world saying 'what can it mean? what can it mean?" I'll tell you what it means, Luke shouts. It means that because the Risen King has given His Spirit the promise to Abraham is fulfilled! The blessing is given for all nations! Babel is reversed! Men gathered around a monument to their own power, and God scattered them to the four corners of the earth, but now every tongue and tribe and nation is gathering around the risen Christ, the sign and seal of God's power poured out for the salvation of humanity. He is indeed our older brother!
And of course what was begun at Pentecost was carried out in the missionary journeys of the apostles, and will be fulfilled on that glorious day when every knee shall bow and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, and when the river that flows from the throne of the Lamb will send forth the trees whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.
The most shocking part of the story, though, is the way that God's blessing comes about, the strange twist on God's reversal of Babel. Because at Babel they spoke one language and were cursed by being forced to speak all sorts of strange languages. But at Pentecost and even in the new heavens and the new earth, the babbling praise of the nations becomes the glory of the risen Lamb. God doesn't reverse the curse by allowing humanity to return to one language; he reverses the curse by bringing as many bizarre and strange tongues and tribes from the furthest and farthest places of the world as He can find, and allowing them to create a symphonic chorus of praise to His own glorious name. God doesn't give us understanding and a new humanity by making us all the same, he gives us a new humanity by keeping us all different and allowing us to understand one another! In Tolkien's powerful creation narrative he describes the songs of the gods, beautiful and strong, but corrupted by the foul, dischordant singing of the Satanic figure. But the creator god does not silence the evil singer; he changes the song, so that it becomes more beautiful still. That is what the risen Jesus did through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; that is what He promises for every nation under heaven at the end of all things.
This is why Paul clings to the metaphor of the body: you are the body of Christ, with each member playing a different part. God doesn't heal Babel by creating a nation of hands. He heals Babel by making the risen Christ the head of a host of diverse and different arms, legs, hands, feet, eyes, ears, and toes, who through their diversity bring great and glorious honor to the Father. That's why John didn't hear Americans and Mexicans speaking Hebrew in his great vision; he heard Americans saying 'ya'll come back now' and 'como esta usted' and yet he understood it all.
Jesus Christ is the elder brother of a new family, a new humanity, filled with little tiny toddlers who look as different as do the nations of the earth, and yet who hear their Father delightfully crying each new day, 'Ahh, I can see the family resemblance now! And how similar to their older brother they are becoming!'
There are a million implications here, as there are with all of the truly divine and beautiful mysteries. In the same way that we have worshipped other kings, we have far too often lived in other families besides the one new and truly human family founded at the resurrection. But I will leave all of that to our imaginations and prayers in the days ahead. Instead I will say only this: I have found first hand, through Bible Studies with African-Americans in Memphis, worship with Asians and Malagasies, fellowship meals with the many tribes and nations of Kenya, and church services from Belize to Ukraine and back, that coming together as the younger brothers and sisters of the risen Jesus is the absolute hardest and most difficult thing imaginable. Racial reconciliation may be the least talked about theme of the New Testament, and for good reason: it makes all of us miserable. Read Paul again, and remember that one of the biggest issues facing the early church was how would Jews and Gentiles ever be able to live and work and worship together. Take off the spiritual blinders that make everything in Scripture about "spiritual truths" and hear the ethnic clashing and chaos of the early church and hear Paul say he destroyed the dividing wall of hostility, making the two one, bringing peace. Because at the same time I am totally and utterly convinced that worship and life in the diverse church is the most rewarding and God honoring thing I've ever experienced. As one author put it, the injunctions to love one another spread through the New Testament are there because the church was and always has been a community made up of natural enemies. But when we submit, when we come together, when we listen to the African-American spirituals and Kiswahili praise songs, and Mandarin house church hymns and claim them for our own and as an equal part of God's great movement in Jesus, we find our brother better and more beautiful than we ever rememberd. It is this worship, the worship that transcends the Jewish temple and the Samaritan mountain (and the Presbyterian organ, and the Church of Christ's choir, and the Baptist's rock band) that is truly in Spirit and Truth, and that therefore truly brings glory to our Father. And I'm convinced that if you or I really mean what we so often say about wanting to know Jesus and be like him and to follow him and all of that, we'd go sprinting for the church located among the ethnic people group we have the absolute hardest time not hating.
Ben Witherington has written that New Testament worship is worship with "one eye on the horizon;" that we pray and sing and study "in the shadow of the kingdom." In other words we don't just look back. We look forward. And when we look forward we find the Risen Lamb glorified by the body of Christ called from every tongue and tribe, the body of Christ comprised of all of the worst ethnic and tribal enemies in the history of the world gloriously brought into loving unity, falling on their faces before the LORD.
If we truly believe this message, it will change our lives, and not least our missions. Because if we really grasp this message, we will stop paternalistically going out into the world in order to rescue "those poor backwards people," and will start joyfully looking for new worshipers, new enemies turned fellow brothers and sisters, more people with stranger tongues singing stranger songs that are becoming the one song of this crazy, cantankerous, messed up family . . . with the Risen Christ at its head.
Peace,
Michael
But the promise was never for Abraham's ethnic descendants alone. From the very beginning, God declared that he would give Abraham a land, a nation, a people . . . and that through him, all the nations of the world would be blessed. That's right. As soon as God got done scattering the wicked rebelious people of the world to the winds, he started working on a plan to bless them and bring them back.
Of course for most of their history the Israelite nation seemed happy to end with the "you'll be a great nation," and "I'll curse those who curse you," and just kind of forget about the "all peoples" part. But God didn't, and neither did His faithful prophets. Just listen to Isaiah in the final chapter of his prophecy:
"And I, because of their actions and their imaginations, am about to come and gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my glory . . . I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations . . . to the distant lands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. And they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain . . . And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites," says the LORD. As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me," declares the LORD, "so will your name and descenants endure . . . all mankind will come and bow down before me." (Isaiah 66)
Isaiah prophesied that God would raise up Israel as a light to the nations, and that the nations would stream to that light. But Israel fell short. Their sin kept them from being God's ambassadors to the world, just as the world's sin had kept the rest of humanity from responding to God's call. They far too often chose to reinforce the divisions between "the chosen" and the rest, rather than boldly going to the nations as Isaiah had prophesied. So since God didn't fulfill this promise through "faithful Israel," how did he fulfill it? As N.T. Wright puts it, when Israel failed in faithfulness, God fulfilled His covenant throught "the faithful Israelite," Jesus the Christ.
The Risen Christ is the beginning of the end of the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that through him, all nations would be blessed. At Babel God had scattered the nations, and at Sinai God had separated His people from all the other nations of the world. But through the resurrection Christ called all the nations back unto Himself. He became our inter-ethnic peace, by making the two one and [destroying] the barrier the dividing wall of hostility . . . His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility (Ephesians 2). In the context of Paul's other teaching in the resurrection, I am convinced that this language about the "one man out of the two" is a direct reference to the resurrection. Whereas at the cross Jesus put to death our hostility, in the resurrection he united all flesh in himself, by becoming the first fruits of the new heavens and the new earth, the older brother of a new human family for the glory of God. The faithful Israelite has fulfilled Isaiah's vision: He has survived the wrath of God, He has gone to the nations, He has brought them to his father, and He has found them through His resurrection to be His brothers before the Father.
When the Spirit came in power at Pentecost, it was this blessing to the nations that gave Peter the opportunity to declare that through the resurrection and ascension of the Christ, Jesus had received the Spirit and poured it out on them in power. Are not all these men Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Capadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism; Cretans and Arabs- we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues! Amazed and perplexed they asked one another, 'What does this mean?' Luke is practically shouting at us now. Here are all the nations of the world saying 'what can it mean? what can it mean?" I'll tell you what it means, Luke shouts. It means that because the Risen King has given His Spirit the promise to Abraham is fulfilled! The blessing is given for all nations! Babel is reversed! Men gathered around a monument to their own power, and God scattered them to the four corners of the earth, but now every tongue and tribe and nation is gathering around the risen Christ, the sign and seal of God's power poured out for the salvation of humanity. He is indeed our older brother!
And of course what was begun at Pentecost was carried out in the missionary journeys of the apostles, and will be fulfilled on that glorious day when every knee shall bow and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, and when the river that flows from the throne of the Lamb will send forth the trees whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.
The most shocking part of the story, though, is the way that God's blessing comes about, the strange twist on God's reversal of Babel. Because at Babel they spoke one language and were cursed by being forced to speak all sorts of strange languages. But at Pentecost and even in the new heavens and the new earth, the babbling praise of the nations becomes the glory of the risen Lamb. God doesn't reverse the curse by allowing humanity to return to one language; he reverses the curse by bringing as many bizarre and strange tongues and tribes from the furthest and farthest places of the world as He can find, and allowing them to create a symphonic chorus of praise to His own glorious name. God doesn't give us understanding and a new humanity by making us all the same, he gives us a new humanity by keeping us all different and allowing us to understand one another! In Tolkien's powerful creation narrative he describes the songs of the gods, beautiful and strong, but corrupted by the foul, dischordant singing of the Satanic figure. But the creator god does not silence the evil singer; he changes the song, so that it becomes more beautiful still. That is what the risen Jesus did through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; that is what He promises for every nation under heaven at the end of all things.
This is why Paul clings to the metaphor of the body: you are the body of Christ, with each member playing a different part. God doesn't heal Babel by creating a nation of hands. He heals Babel by making the risen Christ the head of a host of diverse and different arms, legs, hands, feet, eyes, ears, and toes, who through their diversity bring great and glorious honor to the Father. That's why John didn't hear Americans and Mexicans speaking Hebrew in his great vision; he heard Americans saying 'ya'll come back now' and 'como esta usted' and yet he understood it all.
Jesus Christ is the elder brother of a new family, a new humanity, filled with little tiny toddlers who look as different as do the nations of the earth, and yet who hear their Father delightfully crying each new day, 'Ahh, I can see the family resemblance now! And how similar to their older brother they are becoming!'
There are a million implications here, as there are with all of the truly divine and beautiful mysteries. In the same way that we have worshipped other kings, we have far too often lived in other families besides the one new and truly human family founded at the resurrection. But I will leave all of that to our imaginations and prayers in the days ahead. Instead I will say only this: I have found first hand, through Bible Studies with African-Americans in Memphis, worship with Asians and Malagasies, fellowship meals with the many tribes and nations of Kenya, and church services from Belize to Ukraine and back, that coming together as the younger brothers and sisters of the risen Jesus is the absolute hardest and most difficult thing imaginable. Racial reconciliation may be the least talked about theme of the New Testament, and for good reason: it makes all of us miserable. Read Paul again, and remember that one of the biggest issues facing the early church was how would Jews and Gentiles ever be able to live and work and worship together. Take off the spiritual blinders that make everything in Scripture about "spiritual truths" and hear the ethnic clashing and chaos of the early church and hear Paul say he destroyed the dividing wall of hostility, making the two one, bringing peace. Because at the same time I am totally and utterly convinced that worship and life in the diverse church is the most rewarding and God honoring thing I've ever experienced. As one author put it, the injunctions to love one another spread through the New Testament are there because the church was and always has been a community made up of natural enemies. But when we submit, when we come together, when we listen to the African-American spirituals and Kiswahili praise songs, and Mandarin house church hymns and claim them for our own and as an equal part of God's great movement in Jesus, we find our brother better and more beautiful than we ever rememberd. It is this worship, the worship that transcends the Jewish temple and the Samaritan mountain (and the Presbyterian organ, and the Church of Christ's choir, and the Baptist's rock band) that is truly in Spirit and Truth, and that therefore truly brings glory to our Father. And I'm convinced that if you or I really mean what we so often say about wanting to know Jesus and be like him and to follow him and all of that, we'd go sprinting for the church located among the ethnic people group we have the absolute hardest time not hating.
Ben Witherington has written that New Testament worship is worship with "one eye on the horizon;" that we pray and sing and study "in the shadow of the kingdom." In other words we don't just look back. We look forward. And when we look forward we find the Risen Lamb glorified by the body of Christ called from every tongue and tribe, the body of Christ comprised of all of the worst ethnic and tribal enemies in the history of the world gloriously brought into loving unity, falling on their faces before the LORD.
If we truly believe this message, it will change our lives, and not least our missions. Because if we really grasp this message, we will stop paternalistically going out into the world in order to rescue "those poor backwards people," and will start joyfully looking for new worshipers, new enemies turned fellow brothers and sisters, more people with stranger tongues singing stranger songs that are becoming the one song of this crazy, cantankerous, messed up family . . . with the Risen Christ at its head.
Peace,
Michael
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Easter Reflections: The Resurrection Crown
Jesus is the Risen Lord! Many scholars believe that this explosive statement was the earliest Christian creed. Peter preached at Pentecost that through the resurrection God the Father made the risen Jesus the king of the whole world:
God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear . . . Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:33, 36)
The Israelites between the Exodus and Saul seem to have believed that Yahweh Himself was their king (1 Sam 12:12), but they demanded for an earthly king and were given, with the exception of David and the few who followed in his footsteps, a long line of idolatrous, unjust, and downright foolish kings. And eventually exile was the result. Humanity as represented in Adam had been chosen by God at creation to be His agents in the world; humanity rejected this call, so God called for Himself a people who would be His representatives in the world. But they too rejected their call, and so just as Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden, the Israelites were kicked out of the Promised Land (and even when they returned to it, it was almost always as slaves, colonies, second class citizens in a long line of pagan empires).
But the prophets promised that God would finally send a king who would put all things to right, not just for Israel but for the whole world. "Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See your king comes to you,” And who is this king? How shall we know him? He comes “righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey (Zephaniah 9).” And so Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, the anointed by the Spirit of the Lord to fulfill the promises of God (Luke 4), Israel and the world’s rightful king.
But if on Palm Sunday King Jesus came to the capital of his kingdom, it was on Easter Sunday that the Risen Christ was crowned king of a new creation kingdom that He himself inaugurated through His death and resurrection. And it is this same risen Lord, given a new creation body by the Holy Spirit that nevertheless still bears the scars of his suffering, that John saw returning at the end of all things with KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS written in blood red across His thigh and on His robe, with the new heavens and the new earth coming out of heaven like a jewel behind him (Revelation 19-21). Hallelujah for our Lord God Almighty reigns!
Jesus is the Risen Lord and King, we cry with the church across the ages. But for those of us whose ancestors haven’t lived under a monarchy for several centuries, for those of us like myself whose cultural, historical, social, and even philosophical story shares few obvious roots with the story of God’s people in the Old Testament, I think it’s easy for us to cry “Christ is King” with our lips . . . and deny it with our lives.
You see the early Christians knew full well that to declare “Christ is King” was to shout “And Cesar Isn’t.” They knew it, and they died for it. And everyone in the Roman Empire knew it. When the jealous Jews of Acts 17 really wanted to get Paul in trouble, they just dragged him to the officials and declared a half-truth: “[Paul is] defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” And while we have no evidence that the first half of this claim was true, the entire New Testament testifies that the church lived and died proclaiming the second half.
Many have asked why the persecution of Christians under Rome was so severe when the official Roman policy was to tolerate religions of all kinds, especially since, unlike the Jews, the Christians led no armed revolts. But the answer is clear: Rome tolerated all sorts of religious beliefs, just so long as it was Roman citizenship that came first. You could worship whoever you wanted, so long as you worshipped the Caesar as well. And this was exactly the thing that Paul and the early church refused to do: they refused to let Jesus be a religious leader. They insisted on crying out to Him as a King.
Because of our distance from monarchs of any kind and particularly of that kind who declared themselves to actually be gods, it is difficult to recognize the extent of all this. So to help us out, author and activist Shane Claiborne quotes extensively from a Roman letter about the Caesar:
The most divine Caesar . . . we should consider equal to the Beginning of all things . . . for when everything was falling (into disorder) and tending toward dissolution, he restored it once more and gave the whole world a new aura; Caesar . . . the common good Fortune of all . . . the beginning of life and vitality . . .whereas the Providence which has regulated our whole existence . . . has brought our life to the climax of perfection in giving to us the (emperor) Augustus . . . who being sent to us and our descendents as Savior, has put an end to war and has set all things in order; and (whereas,) having become (god) manifest, Caesar has fulfilled all the hopes of earlier times . . . the birthday of god (Augustus) has been for the whole world the beginning of the gospel concerning him (Jesus for President, p. 70).
Replace Caesar’s name with Christ’s and most of this could be Biblical. The early Christians weren’t doing a write-in for a new candidate for the king in the upcoming election. They were declaring that above and over and against the claims of kingship and deity for the Caesar, in total opposition to the demand for ultimate authority and allegiance to Rome and its ruler, stood the Risen Christ, King of the World and the Coming Kingdom.
The Christians died with Jesus is the Risen King on their lips. They suffered abuse at every side because they refused to let any claim of culture, ethnicity, state religion, or political power trump their allegiance to the Christ who had become for them all in all. Given the hubris of the Roman empire cult, Christ’s resurrection crown was one of the most subversive and controversial claims going. Lucky for us we don’t live in an age like that!
Or do we? Isn’t it true that our culture and our nation constantly seek to demand our total allegiance? Do not the household gods of comfort, financial security, and affluence claim our allegiances in the economic sphere? Are we not constantly if subtly told that ‘yes, it’s all well and good to follow Christ, but it really just won’t do when it comes to national security, or family loyalty, or economic practice’? Here’s a test: when was the last time we thought about the Christians in the countries we’re currently at war with (or those in nations that our self-serving economic policy might be decimating). Because according to the Bible, we share a greater allegiance with them than we do with our nation. How about another one: when was the last time that the Sermon on the Mount was the driving force behind your financial decisions? When was the last time that we were part of a church budget discussion that made “blessed are the poor” the first question for every line item? I can’t avoid asking one more: how do you talk about brothers and sisters in Christ who happen to be communists? Or Socialists? Or Democrats (or Republicans)? Which came first in that last discussion? The person’s secondary political identity? Or their membership in the true and lasting kingdom with the Risen Christ as its King?
All of us everywhere have in subtle and sinister ways become traitors to our King. We have given our allegiance to the temporary powers of the world, whom Christ made a spectacle of at the cross (Colossians 1). Looking at those litmus tests, I find that my allegiance to the world is acid as anyone I know. I worship Jesus as King every Sunday, but as I’ve been thinking about this blog post I’ve realized just how often the worship that goes on Monday through Saturday is at the altar of the household gods of economic security, political theory, personal achievement, and maybe worst of all, of general respectability and acceptance in my own community of friends and family.
The resurrection shatters the kingdoms of the world, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. The resurrection reminds all world orders, be they nations, philosophies, or religions, that their days are numbered, that their power is limited, that they must kneel to the Christ or perish. If we look at the way the early church read the Old Testament, the way they treated their Jewish or Greek heritage, the way they interacted and engaged with their nation and the larger world, we see at every turn that they recognized Christ as King of the cosmos, and therefore gave their allegiance to Him as such. This Easter week, let’s pray that the Spirit would open our eyes to the ways we’ve traded Christ as King for the much more visible, much more expedient, but nevertheless deadly kings of our culture, nation, and community. Let’s fall on our knees again as subjects of the king who, like Aslan in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, is “on the move,” coming to Narnia, gunning for the White Witch, and bringing the eternal summer kingdom that drives out the tyrant’s long winter.
Peace,
Michael
God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear . . . Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:33, 36)
The Israelites between the Exodus and Saul seem to have believed that Yahweh Himself was their king (1 Sam 12:12), but they demanded for an earthly king and were given, with the exception of David and the few who followed in his footsteps, a long line of idolatrous, unjust, and downright foolish kings. And eventually exile was the result. Humanity as represented in Adam had been chosen by God at creation to be His agents in the world; humanity rejected this call, so God called for Himself a people who would be His representatives in the world. But they too rejected their call, and so just as Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden, the Israelites were kicked out of the Promised Land (and even when they returned to it, it was almost always as slaves, colonies, second class citizens in a long line of pagan empires).
But the prophets promised that God would finally send a king who would put all things to right, not just for Israel but for the whole world. "Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See your king comes to you,” And who is this king? How shall we know him? He comes “righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey (Zephaniah 9).” And so Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, the anointed by the Spirit of the Lord to fulfill the promises of God (Luke 4), Israel and the world’s rightful king.
But if on Palm Sunday King Jesus came to the capital of his kingdom, it was on Easter Sunday that the Risen Christ was crowned king of a new creation kingdom that He himself inaugurated through His death and resurrection. And it is this same risen Lord, given a new creation body by the Holy Spirit that nevertheless still bears the scars of his suffering, that John saw returning at the end of all things with KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS written in blood red across His thigh and on His robe, with the new heavens and the new earth coming out of heaven like a jewel behind him (Revelation 19-21). Hallelujah for our Lord God Almighty reigns!
Jesus is the Risen Lord and King, we cry with the church across the ages. But for those of us whose ancestors haven’t lived under a monarchy for several centuries, for those of us like myself whose cultural, historical, social, and even philosophical story shares few obvious roots with the story of God’s people in the Old Testament, I think it’s easy for us to cry “Christ is King” with our lips . . . and deny it with our lives.
You see the early Christians knew full well that to declare “Christ is King” was to shout “And Cesar Isn’t.” They knew it, and they died for it. And everyone in the Roman Empire knew it. When the jealous Jews of Acts 17 really wanted to get Paul in trouble, they just dragged him to the officials and declared a half-truth: “[Paul is] defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” And while we have no evidence that the first half of this claim was true, the entire New Testament testifies that the church lived and died proclaiming the second half.
Many have asked why the persecution of Christians under Rome was so severe when the official Roman policy was to tolerate religions of all kinds, especially since, unlike the Jews, the Christians led no armed revolts. But the answer is clear: Rome tolerated all sorts of religious beliefs, just so long as it was Roman citizenship that came first. You could worship whoever you wanted, so long as you worshipped the Caesar as well. And this was exactly the thing that Paul and the early church refused to do: they refused to let Jesus be a religious leader. They insisted on crying out to Him as a King.
Because of our distance from monarchs of any kind and particularly of that kind who declared themselves to actually be gods, it is difficult to recognize the extent of all this. So to help us out, author and activist Shane Claiborne quotes extensively from a Roman letter about the Caesar:
The most divine Caesar . . . we should consider equal to the Beginning of all things . . . for when everything was falling (into disorder) and tending toward dissolution, he restored it once more and gave the whole world a new aura; Caesar . . . the common good Fortune of all . . . the beginning of life and vitality . . .whereas the Providence which has regulated our whole existence . . . has brought our life to the climax of perfection in giving to us the (emperor) Augustus . . . who being sent to us and our descendents as Savior, has put an end to war and has set all things in order; and (whereas,) having become (god) manifest, Caesar has fulfilled all the hopes of earlier times . . . the birthday of god (Augustus) has been for the whole world the beginning of the gospel concerning him (Jesus for President, p. 70).
Replace Caesar’s name with Christ’s and most of this could be Biblical. The early Christians weren’t doing a write-in for a new candidate for the king in the upcoming election. They were declaring that above and over and against the claims of kingship and deity for the Caesar, in total opposition to the demand for ultimate authority and allegiance to Rome and its ruler, stood the Risen Christ, King of the World and the Coming Kingdom.
The Christians died with Jesus is the Risen King on their lips. They suffered abuse at every side because they refused to let any claim of culture, ethnicity, state religion, or political power trump their allegiance to the Christ who had become for them all in all. Given the hubris of the Roman empire cult, Christ’s resurrection crown was one of the most subversive and controversial claims going. Lucky for us we don’t live in an age like that!
Or do we? Isn’t it true that our culture and our nation constantly seek to demand our total allegiance? Do not the household gods of comfort, financial security, and affluence claim our allegiances in the economic sphere? Are we not constantly if subtly told that ‘yes, it’s all well and good to follow Christ, but it really just won’t do when it comes to national security, or family loyalty, or economic practice’? Here’s a test: when was the last time we thought about the Christians in the countries we’re currently at war with (or those in nations that our self-serving economic policy might be decimating). Because according to the Bible, we share a greater allegiance with them than we do with our nation. How about another one: when was the last time that the Sermon on the Mount was the driving force behind your financial decisions? When was the last time that we were part of a church budget discussion that made “blessed are the poor” the first question for every line item? I can’t avoid asking one more: how do you talk about brothers and sisters in Christ who happen to be communists? Or Socialists? Or Democrats (or Republicans)? Which came first in that last discussion? The person’s secondary political identity? Or their membership in the true and lasting kingdom with the Risen Christ as its King?
All of us everywhere have in subtle and sinister ways become traitors to our King. We have given our allegiance to the temporary powers of the world, whom Christ made a spectacle of at the cross (Colossians 1). Looking at those litmus tests, I find that my allegiance to the world is acid as anyone I know. I worship Jesus as King every Sunday, but as I’ve been thinking about this blog post I’ve realized just how often the worship that goes on Monday through Saturday is at the altar of the household gods of economic security, political theory, personal achievement, and maybe worst of all, of general respectability and acceptance in my own community of friends and family.
The resurrection shatters the kingdoms of the world, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. The resurrection reminds all world orders, be they nations, philosophies, or religions, that their days are numbered, that their power is limited, that they must kneel to the Christ or perish. If we look at the way the early church read the Old Testament, the way they treated their Jewish or Greek heritage, the way they interacted and engaged with their nation and the larger world, we see at every turn that they recognized Christ as King of the cosmos, and therefore gave their allegiance to Him as such. This Easter week, let’s pray that the Spirit would open our eyes to the ways we’ve traded Christ as King for the much more visible, much more expedient, but nevertheless deadly kings of our culture, nation, and community. Let’s fall on our knees again as subjects of the king who, like Aslan in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, is “on the move,” coming to Narnia, gunning for the White Witch, and bringing the eternal summer kingdom that drives out the tyrant’s long winter.
Peace,
Michael
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Easter Reflections: Resurrection New Creation
The Resurrection of Jesus was not the after-thought “happy-ending” that made the real truth of the crucifixion more bearable. Nor was that first Easter, at least in the minds of those early Christians who recorded it for us, a metaphor or story explaining how Jesus died and went to heaven. Nor is it again the means by which Jesus came back and said “see, I won after all, and though death is tough the good news is that like me, one day you’ll escape from this horrible world and get to go away to a cloud-filled heaven.”
The Resurrection for the early Christians was both the means of a new creation that would culminate in the kingdom of God, and the first fruits of that new creation kingdom. To begin to meditate on this, and grasp its meaning for ourselves, we have to see the resurrection new creation in light of the first creation that preceded it.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:15-17)
Paul saw Jesus as the one through whom and for whom God the Creator had spoken the universe into glorious existence. Paul looks back to the original Genesis account, and sees Jesus as the source, sustainer, and receiver of the entire cosmos which God declared was “very good.” And while sin wrecked both humanity and the physical world, the Jews still believed that God continued to hold that basically good world together. They believed that God “so loved the world” that he would come and redeem it. Paul grew up singing the Psalms, and in his New Testament writings we see the same basic delight in the physical world combined with the new revelation that it was Jesus Himself who was the Word that God spoke to create all things, and Jesus Himself who kept the world together for His good pleasure in spite of all that sin had done. Ever since Plato many if not most of us have deep down believed that the physical world is bad, dirty, or at best irrelevant in comparison to “spiritual” things. But not so for the Jews nor for the early Christians. The created world is the work of God, and if it is broken, God’s promises are not to abandon it but to fix it. And it is this that leads Paul further and farther out, to a place where no other religion or worldview has ever dared go:
And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1:18-20)
This same Jesus who was before all things and the creator of the first world, is now the first born, the first fruits of the new world that is being born out of the old. A careful study of Genesis shows that while the creation was perfect in the sense of “without sin,” this does not mean that it was perfect in terms of being a finished work. God wanted people to be his stewards and representatives in the world, stewarding and ruling the created order towards “bigger and better things.” But sin put that plan off track, it threw a wrench in the system. So on the cross, Jesus cried “it is finished,” and he was right. The sin and death of the first creation brought on by the first Adam were dealt with at the cross. But in John’s gospel we find the risen Lord, the second Adam, standing in a second garden on the first day of a new week, putting the physical world back on track, back in line with God’s original intentions. “Behold I am making all things new!” That is the cry of Easter, because at the incarnation Jesus took on the body of the first creation, a body that suffered at the hands of sinful humanity and bore the full brunt of the final enemy that is death. But notice what happens next: God doesn’t whisk Jesus’ soul away to an immortal heaven. Nor does he give him a ghostly body that will allow him to leave behind the dirty created body he took at the incarnation. No! God takes the broken, marred, twisted, old creation body, and raises it up in the power of the Spirit into a new body. And Romans 8 makes it clear that what God did with Jesus’ body on that Easter Sunday he will do to our broken bodies and to the entire world. Jesus’ resurrection is the breaking in of a new world, a new creation that we taste in the present and will receive fully at the second coming!
And if this is true, what a difference it makes! Martin Luther apparently once said that if we knew Christ was coming again tomorrow, we’d plant a tree today. That’s resurrection talk right there! Because through the resurrection we can participate in the new creation that is coming fully at Christ’s second coming. The world is not a hotel we temporarily live in that’s going to be demolished next month, but the fixer-upper project of the Risen Lamb.
But it’s not just a renewed care for the Earth that comes on Easter. It’s a renewed calling to creation and care of all kinds. Art, music, literature, architecture . . . if Christ is renewing and restoring the cosmos through the resurrection, then every single human thing we do has value as a way for us to anticipate that new creation in the here and now. Paul tells us both that because of the resurrection “we are new creation” and that we are still “groaning” for the hope that we haven’t yet received . . . the redemption of our bodies. In the same way, our calling in the here and now involves living out the resurrection hope we have for the future in the present, aka loving the earth, creating beautiful works of art, building brilliant buildings . . . heck, maybe even farming?
Which is of course a beautiful reminder. Our task is not just to make it through this life, but to build upon, steward, and care for the physical world and the cultural gifts we’ve been given. This is at least one part of what it means to live in light of Easter, to join Jesus in that second garden in Jerusalem, which is really the whole world.
Next up, The Resurrection Crown.
Peace,
Michael
Authors Note: This and the following blogposts are the result of countless books, articles, discussions, sermons, prayers, etc. etc. But most recently, credit should be given to Colin Gunton’s The Triune Creator, Ben Witherington’s We Have Seen His Glory, Christopher J.H. Wright’s Knowing the Holy Spirit through the Old Testament, and least recently but most importantly, N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope and The Resurrection and the Son of God.
The Resurrection for the early Christians was both the means of a new creation that would culminate in the kingdom of God, and the first fruits of that new creation kingdom. To begin to meditate on this, and grasp its meaning for ourselves, we have to see the resurrection new creation in light of the first creation that preceded it.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:15-17)
Paul saw Jesus as the one through whom and for whom God the Creator had spoken the universe into glorious existence. Paul looks back to the original Genesis account, and sees Jesus as the source, sustainer, and receiver of the entire cosmos which God declared was “very good.” And while sin wrecked both humanity and the physical world, the Jews still believed that God continued to hold that basically good world together. They believed that God “so loved the world” that he would come and redeem it. Paul grew up singing the Psalms, and in his New Testament writings we see the same basic delight in the physical world combined with the new revelation that it was Jesus Himself who was the Word that God spoke to create all things, and Jesus Himself who kept the world together for His good pleasure in spite of all that sin had done. Ever since Plato many if not most of us have deep down believed that the physical world is bad, dirty, or at best irrelevant in comparison to “spiritual” things. But not so for the Jews nor for the early Christians. The created world is the work of God, and if it is broken, God’s promises are not to abandon it but to fix it. And it is this that leads Paul further and farther out, to a place where no other religion or worldview has ever dared go:
And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1:18-20)
This same Jesus who was before all things and the creator of the first world, is now the first born, the first fruits of the new world that is being born out of the old. A careful study of Genesis shows that while the creation was perfect in the sense of “without sin,” this does not mean that it was perfect in terms of being a finished work. God wanted people to be his stewards and representatives in the world, stewarding and ruling the created order towards “bigger and better things.” But sin put that plan off track, it threw a wrench in the system. So on the cross, Jesus cried “it is finished,” and he was right. The sin and death of the first creation brought on by the first Adam were dealt with at the cross. But in John’s gospel we find the risen Lord, the second Adam, standing in a second garden on the first day of a new week, putting the physical world back on track, back in line with God’s original intentions. “Behold I am making all things new!” That is the cry of Easter, because at the incarnation Jesus took on the body of the first creation, a body that suffered at the hands of sinful humanity and bore the full brunt of the final enemy that is death. But notice what happens next: God doesn’t whisk Jesus’ soul away to an immortal heaven. Nor does he give him a ghostly body that will allow him to leave behind the dirty created body he took at the incarnation. No! God takes the broken, marred, twisted, old creation body, and raises it up in the power of the Spirit into a new body. And Romans 8 makes it clear that what God did with Jesus’ body on that Easter Sunday he will do to our broken bodies and to the entire world. Jesus’ resurrection is the breaking in of a new world, a new creation that we taste in the present and will receive fully at the second coming!
And if this is true, what a difference it makes! Martin Luther apparently once said that if we knew Christ was coming again tomorrow, we’d plant a tree today. That’s resurrection talk right there! Because through the resurrection we can participate in the new creation that is coming fully at Christ’s second coming. The world is not a hotel we temporarily live in that’s going to be demolished next month, but the fixer-upper project of the Risen Lamb.
But it’s not just a renewed care for the Earth that comes on Easter. It’s a renewed calling to creation and care of all kinds. Art, music, literature, architecture . . . if Christ is renewing and restoring the cosmos through the resurrection, then every single human thing we do has value as a way for us to anticipate that new creation in the here and now. Paul tells us both that because of the resurrection “we are new creation” and that we are still “groaning” for the hope that we haven’t yet received . . . the redemption of our bodies. In the same way, our calling in the here and now involves living out the resurrection hope we have for the future in the present, aka loving the earth, creating beautiful works of art, building brilliant buildings . . . heck, maybe even farming?
Which is of course a beautiful reminder. Our task is not just to make it through this life, but to build upon, steward, and care for the physical world and the cultural gifts we’ve been given. This is at least one part of what it means to live in light of Easter, to join Jesus in that second garden in Jerusalem, which is really the whole world.
Next up, The Resurrection Crown.
Peace,
Michael
Authors Note: This and the following blogposts are the result of countless books, articles, discussions, sermons, prayers, etc. etc. But most recently, credit should be given to Colin Gunton’s The Triune Creator, Ben Witherington’s We Have Seen His Glory, Christopher J.H. Wright’s Knowing the Holy Spirit through the Old Testament, and least recently but most importantly, N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope and The Resurrection and the Son of God.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Easter Reflections: Resurrection Changes Everything
Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! And with the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church we cry out together what appears to be the earliest Christian confession: Jesus is the Risen Lord!
“It is finished!” That was the cry of the Christ on the cross on Good Friday. Death, sin, our shame and guilt, God’s wrath against us, our failure to be the people of God that Yahweh had called us to be . . . all finished at the cross. For the One who knew no sin became sin for our sakes, taking the punishment that should have been ours, and buying us our peace with the Father and with each other by his freely-given blood.
But when the Incarnate God in Jesus lays down His life, He is free to pick it back up again, and the great ending, the history shattering finishing of the cross is answered by the Easter new beginning of the resurrection. Christ paid for the disciples’ sins on Good Friday, but on Saturday they locked themselves up and hid for fear. But on Easter Sunday, when the risen Lord appeared before them and breathed the Holy Spirit on them, that same Holy Spirit through whom the Father gave life back to the crucified Son, they became the founders of the Church, the authors of the New Testament, the martyrs who became one with Christ in his sufferings so somehow to become like him in his resurrection. Easter and the empty tomb are the turning points of the world, the foundation of our new life in Christ, the first day of a new creation week that can only come after the finishing work of Jesus on the Cross.
There is no greater source for Christian evangelism, for Christian social action, for Christian callings and community, than the resurrection of our Lord and King Jesus the Christ. If Christ has not been raised than our faith is useless and we are still dead in our sins; Good Friday’s “it is finished” is no good news without Easter Sunday’s “behold I am making all things new!” So this week, we want to reflect on several aspects of Christ’s resurrection, and a few of the ways that Rebecca and I have had our faith and calling renewed and reinvigorated by meditation on Easter and our Risen Lord. Over the next few days, we’ll blog about The Resurrection New Creation, The Resurrection Crown, The Resurrection Family, and finally The Resurrection Hope. We hope that you’ll follow us through these reflections and find yourself delighted again to behold this Jesus whom God has made both Lord and Christ.
Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
Peace,
Michael
“It is finished!” That was the cry of the Christ on the cross on Good Friday. Death, sin, our shame and guilt, God’s wrath against us, our failure to be the people of God that Yahweh had called us to be . . . all finished at the cross. For the One who knew no sin became sin for our sakes, taking the punishment that should have been ours, and buying us our peace with the Father and with each other by his freely-given blood.
But when the Incarnate God in Jesus lays down His life, He is free to pick it back up again, and the great ending, the history shattering finishing of the cross is answered by the Easter new beginning of the resurrection. Christ paid for the disciples’ sins on Good Friday, but on Saturday they locked themselves up and hid for fear. But on Easter Sunday, when the risen Lord appeared before them and breathed the Holy Spirit on them, that same Holy Spirit through whom the Father gave life back to the crucified Son, they became the founders of the Church, the authors of the New Testament, the martyrs who became one with Christ in his sufferings so somehow to become like him in his resurrection. Easter and the empty tomb are the turning points of the world, the foundation of our new life in Christ, the first day of a new creation week that can only come after the finishing work of Jesus on the Cross.
There is no greater source for Christian evangelism, for Christian social action, for Christian callings and community, than the resurrection of our Lord and King Jesus the Christ. If Christ has not been raised than our faith is useless and we are still dead in our sins; Good Friday’s “it is finished” is no good news without Easter Sunday’s “behold I am making all things new!” So this week, we want to reflect on several aspects of Christ’s resurrection, and a few of the ways that Rebecca and I have had our faith and calling renewed and reinvigorated by meditation on Easter and our Risen Lord. Over the next few days, we’ll blog about The Resurrection New Creation, The Resurrection Crown, The Resurrection Family, and finally The Resurrection Hope. We hope that you’ll follow us through these reflections and find yourself delighted again to behold this Jesus whom God has made both Lord and Christ.
Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
Peace,
Michael
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