ST.PAUL : A Chosen Mud Pot for an Unsearchable Treasure

THE OPEN SECRET- Lesslie Newbigin 

One of the most common metaphors used in the New Testament to describe  the relation of the church to the gospel is that of stewardship. The church, and especially those called to any kind of leadership in the church, are servants entrusted with that which is not their property but is the property of their LORD. (see Paul’s own recognition of such in I Corinthians 4:1-5)

That  which is entrusted is something of infinite worth as compared with the low estate of the servants in whose hands it is placed. They are but mud pots; but that which is entrusted to them is the supreme treasure (see 2 Cor.4:7). The treasure is nothing less than “the mysteries of God”, “the mystery of the gospel” (Eph. 6:19), “the mystery which was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed and…made known to all nations…to bring about the obedience of faith”(Rom.16:25-26). It is ”the mystery of His will…to unite all things in Him”  (Eph.1:9-10).

It is the open secret of God’s purpose, through Christ, to bring all things to their true end in the glory of the triune God. It is open in that it is announced in the gospel that is preached to all nations; it is secret in that it is manifest only to the eyes of faith. It is entrusted to those whom God has given the gift of faith by which the weakness and foolishness of the cross is known as the power and wisdom of God. It is entrusted to them not for themselves but for all nations. It is Christ in them, the hope of glory. (p.18

 

 

      

Can Adam’s Race win the battle for planet earth?

THE BATTLE for MIDDLE EARTH WAS REAL TO THE APOSTLE PAUL                                                                          

 

We noted before that the challenges the Human Race is faced with in the 21st Century are simply staggering. Just to speak of the twin goals of unity and peace which this blog seeks to focus upon and advocate, not to mention the gigantic logistical concerns such as hunger, energy, health, and security. No wonder large numbers are either pessimistic about any positive gains at all or, are so overcome with “gloom and doom” that they have given up on all but just seeking to survive by any means possible.

For those that do seek to be responsible and do what they can to make the world better, there are many sincere folks who still reject a basic premise of Holy Scriptures: Adamic humankind cannot win this battle. If there is to be a “salvation/redemption” it must come from outside the Race, from above- from heaven itself. Many christians are still trying to “patch up” the old Race when God has already clearly condemned it and testified to His provision of an entirely new humanity. Thus the emphasis on “the Ten Commandments”, or “disciplines of the christian life”, or the “how-to’s”, or tradition, or ceremony, or ritual, or a host of “contemporary worship” styles. Now none of these may be wrong-headed ideas in themselves(some of them come from God), they just fail to preach and teach the heart of the Gospel of Christ: salvation is of the Lord and it is His GIFT to sinful and rebellious humanity. But this gift is a Person who brings an entirely new thing to the earth, namely, Himself. It is “external” to every one of us, and for this reason we must repudiate every dependance upon ourselves and learn to live in total dependance upon another.

This is really so simply to demonstrate from the Biblical Narrative that it proves much more is going on in this present confusion and darkness than just our own ignorance and refusal to let God be God. No there’s conspiracy at the highest levels- on the levels of “powers and principalities”, or the powers behind the pawns of world commerce and governments. Listen to Paul’s own “pulling back the curtains” on what our real battle involves:

“…Be strong in the LORD and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of GOD, that you may be able to stand against the schemings of the devil. For we do not wrestle agianst flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:10-12)

 This view of reality comes out in the Biblical narrative over and over again. To neglect it or to take it at less than face value is to already shut yourself off to the light that can effectively lead you out of darkness. The “children of light” are those who have already accepted this as God’s testimony to the unseen things faith must live by. This is why in the Apostles of Christ you will not find anything remotely resembling our current confusion of “smoke and mirrors” but a clear declaration of truth (see 2COR.3:12-4:6).

This is God’s GIFT to the world. Just say NO to Adam’s way of making things better and YES to God’s GIFT. As we consider the Apostle Paul and his writings, we must let him be who he tells us he is. It will require disciplined listening to his own statements of the chief factors in his understanding of and complete trust in the Anointed of Jehovah!

 

 

 

A Golden Opportunity: A Special Jubilee Year

INTERNATIONAL YEAR of SAINT PAUL

A special year in honour of ST.Paul the Apostle has been declared by Pope Benedict XVI. The year will commence on 28th of June, 2008. It may very well be the golden opportunity indeed for all of us to be involved in getting to know for ourselves this Apostle to the Gentiles and the significant role he played in the development of Biblical Christianity.

My suggestion at the begining is to go to the source- go to Paul’s writings themselves. If all Scripture is God’s testimony to his Son Jesus Christ, then surely Paul’s own testimony to the revelation given him of this Christ can be said to be among the richest of all that the Church can study for the knowlege of eternal life.

In a previous post on godly contentment, I left you with a question to ponder which was “ Who taught Paul the art of godly contentment?”  Did you search the Scriptures to find his own answer?

” BUT you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus” (Ephesians 4:20,21)

Yes, Paul consistently claimed that it was the resurrected and exalted Christ himself that personally gave the Apostle his Gospel; that he had been taught by this same Christ, much like those first disciples that found themselves walking with the resurrected Jesus on the road to Emmaus (another earlier post). And what was the unique part of the revelation that was left for Paul to be especially the recorder of for the world and for the Church? I do not hesitate to say that it is “Christ in You”, the little phrase “IN CHRIST” that is so dominant in St.Paul’s writings and ministry.

The universal Church has never been more in need of rediscovering this CHRIST as the source of God’s new humanity and thus the only true source of UNITY. This blog will be participating in the call of a year of Jubilee and post often about Paul’s unique contribution to our access to the treasures of grace found in Christ alone. What would happen if the blog world would do the same and dedicate the priority on searching the Scriptures to see if these things are so, just as some of Paul’s early audiences did at Berea?

 

 CHRIST CALLS SAUL of TARSUS

 

  

 

What’s Gone Wrong Down at that local church?

A lot of folks are asking this and similiar questions about the condition of churches in their neighborhoods after hearing of one more scandal. I certainly don’t want to join in throwing rocks at an already wounded institutional church. But I do want to offer an opinion for you to consider as one of the major weaknesses of local churches I am personally familiar with.

The Chuches have left the Story-line. As it turns out, in almost every case, the bottom lines seems to be that churches have forgotten their charter, their God-given calling.  They seem to be trying their hand at everything under the sun, everything everyone else is now doing, except the very thing they were called into existence to do; live out the life of godliness before the watching world and thus be the instrument of divine healing in the midst of a wicked and rebellious generation. The emphasis here is not on the wickedness of the world, but what God in sending Christ has done to restore his wayward children. The churches are to be local gatherings of the “first-fruits” of those restored to and delighting in the presence and the “shalom”of their heavenly Father while summoning those around them to likewise be converted and join them.

The Testimony of the Father concerning his Son, Jesus Christ, thus becomes the all essential focus of all things in the local church. And this Testimony is found only in the Scriptures-it is a very special Revelation. I found a statement in one of those powerful little books that pretty well sums up what we all need to do in order to recover the spiritual health of the churches:

Consecutive reading of Biblical books forces everyone who wants to hear to put himself, or to allow himself to be found, where God has acted once and for all for the salvation of mankind. We become a part of what once took place for our salvation. Forgetting and losing ourselves, we, too, pass through the Red Sea, through the desert, across the Jordan into the promised land. With Israel we fall into doubt and unbelief and through punishment and repentance experience again God’s help and faithfulness.

We are torn out of our own existence and set down in the midst of the holy history of God on earth. There God dealt with us, and there He still deals with us, our needs and our sins, in judgment and grace. It is not that God is the spectator and sharer of our present life, however important that is; but rather that we are the reverent listeners and participants in God’s action in the sacred story, the history of Christ on earth. And only in so far as we are there, is God with us today also.

A complete reversal occurs. It is not in our life that God’s help and presence must still be proved, but rather God’s presence and help have been demonstrated for us in the life of Jesus Christ. It is in fact more important for us to know what God did to Israel, to His Son Jesus Christ, than to seek what God intends for us today. The fact that Jesus Christ died is more important than the fact that I shall die, and the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead is the sole ground of my hope that I, too, shall be raised on the Last Day. Our salvation is “external to ourselves.” I find no salvation in my life history, but only in the history of Jesus Christ. Only he who allows himself to be found in Jesus Christ, in his incarnation, his cross, and his resurrection, is with God and God with him.

(Life Together- Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Hans Kung on TRUE FAITH

From THE CHURCH MAINTAINED in The Truth

FAITH is like love. If I love someone but have to explain suddenly why I love that person, I may stutter, make mistakes, exaggerate one thing and understate another, say something distorted or even false, stress what is unimportant and even forget what is important. But this is not necessarily detrimental to my love. Love is dependent on statements if it is to find expression. But love is not completely expressed in statements. True love persists even through untrue statements.

It is the same when I have to say why I believe in God, in Jesus Christ. I formulate my reasons perhaps obscurely, imprecisely, even falsely. I overlook one thing and overvalue another. In my statement I may miss what is absolutely essential and have to correct myself afterwards. But this need not be detrimental to my belief in God and Jesus. Belief is dependent on propositions if it has top be professed, expressed, proclaimed, taught. But faith is maintained even through untrue propositions…Christian Faith, like love, can be wholly real, even if one of its propositions in not correct.

- Hans Kung

(see update on Kung )

The ART of Godly Contentment

Can your faith do this for you : supply you each day with a deep sense of well-being, a sense of being content with yourself and your surroundings?

The Christian Faith defined as the Life of Christ himself indwelling the Church, which is his Body, has this quality as expressed so well by the Apostle Paul when he wrote-

I Have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content!   (letter from prison to the Philippian Church)

The most logical question that comes to mind is, “How did Paul learn this beautiful art of living?” For him it was a major and necessary part of his faith in Jesus, the Christ, for he speaks of this in his other letters. For instance, he tells Timothy that “godliness with contentment is great gain“. And he tells us that this had to be learned. If Paul had to learn it, who was his teacher? He was trained under the famous Rabbi, Gamaliel, a leading authority in the Sanhedrin; did he learn the art of contentment from this teacher of Israel in the Jewish Scriptures?

I’m leaving you with this question to ponder before giving you Paul’s own answer, found in another one of his letters from prison. Think with me for a few days just how desirable this quality in life is to actually possess and then meditate on how you believe in your own situation you can learn this art, this habitual practice as part of your daily routine. Through out the history of the Church there have been examples of those in prison for their faith that have also demonstrated this contentment and calm. If you are familiar with the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Luthern pastor/professor imprisoned under the Nazi regime in WWII, and later put to death just before the end of the war, then you will know something of the beauty and worth of this quality in a person’s life under the most difficult of circumstances.

The Highest Priority

    SOUND FAMILIAR ?

This is a revolutionary age. The hurricane winds of change are howling around the world. The human race seethes with unrest and rebellion. Our political institutions are polarized, divided to the left and right without any common ground in the center. Despite the signs of current prosperity, our debt-ridden, hair-triggered economy seems precariously balanced on the verge of collapse. We have barred and deadbolted our homes, making ourselves prisoners while criminals roam free in our neighborhoods, grafitti-tagging and shooting at random, filling our hearts with fear. With every day’s headlines, with every new atrocity or terrorist attack, we see more evidence that there is a very thin line which separates civilization from anarchy. We seem to be approaching not just a political breakdown, but a cultural meltdown. -Ray Stedman

Things don’t seem to change much. These comments were written in 1972 and as any student of history knows, similiar commentaries on the state-of-the-world have been made throughout time. As we said in a previous post, the basic human situation and the dangers confronting us as well as the work of finding solutions is a given in this present age of right vs.wrong.

So what is our highest priority? What is the one activity that stands above all the others that we can spend time and resources to fight this reality in which we all find ourselves in the middle of? This is my blog and you expect me to say what I believe is the answer to that, don’t you? I must show you that I have studied the question seriously and diligently and have in fact come to an answer that I do not hesitate to sign my name to. I have taken ownership of this as the answer and am spending my life and resources on it as the highest priority. And yes, it comes from the biblical story, the same story where I find the best answers to all my serious questions involving the basic issues of life and death, good and evil.

The two lights                                                      

“You are the light of the world! A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.” - Jesus, the Light of the world, to his disciples.

So I do not hesitate to declare to all who will listen, for the peace and unity of humankind, for the healing of the nations’ violence and poverty and corruptions of all kinds- the very best thing that can happen is for this light be as bright as it can be; this city of light be set on a hill clearly in every community of the world so that all that may see the light and be enriched.

The only human society I know that claims to be the Society of Jesus, the Jesus of the biblical story, and says their purpose and desire is to follow and obey Him, is the Church. So my answer is that the highest priority is to get the Church healthy and conformed to the original design of her maker so that she can be the source of power in the world against all these woes that cause death and destruction and untold misery. For the answer is not found in the Capitol Building or the city of Washington,D.C., nor in any earthly government, but only in the Prince of Peace and his city, the heavenly Jerusalem, as it is called in the biblical story. As she reflects the true Light and in turn shines it into every human culture and situation in the world, there is real hope. I send out an earnest plea for those of all Faiths not based on this same story, to pray for the churches you might be familiar with and to do all you can to hold them to their God-given mission to be the City of Light to the world. According to my personal faith, it will be the best thing you can do for yourself and for your people.

This is the highest priority for the Church and for the world.

(the quote is from Ray Stedman’s book on the Church-BODY LIFE)

 

 

 

 

Evangelical Manifesto: Has the salt lost its savor

Prominent evangelicals urged Christian conservatives Wednesday, May 7, to support “an expansion of our concerns beyond single-issue politics,” angering some leaders on the religious right who have been closely allied with the Republican Party. The Manifesto was made public at the National Press Club in Washington,D.C., by a panel representing the Drafting Committee of the document that was some three years in the making.

In a 19-page document called “An Evangelical Manifesto,” more than 70 theologians, pastors and others said faith and politics have been too closely mixed. They warned against Christians adopting any one political view. The first order of business for the Manifesto is an attempt to reform the evangelical movement itself by regaining the original meaning of the label. But simultaneously they are speaking to the public through the media informing the American society at large as to what this movement has been historically and theologically rather than culturally and not reflective of any one ideology, including I might add, on a major issue like the Iraq War. 

Many of us have been very hesitant to be labeled “evangelical” since the rise of the “Moral Majority” because we have seen a deterioration of the theological base on the one hand and a corresponding emphasis on certain, highly politicized agendas among leaders using the label. This is a much needed correction that I urge everyone to pay attention to. From this date on, it will be irresponsible for example, for any journalist in the country to ignore what was said emphatically at this press conference and continue to use the word evangelical to describe a specific political position. It will be very helpful for those of other Faiths, especially Jews and Muslims and Atheists to study this document clearly. In many ways it sets the “gold standard” for what biblical Christians of all stripes seek to live by, the teachings and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It also plainly announces the intention to join with others to work for the common good of the country and the world and to do so in a “gentle and reverent manner”. It is a new call to civility in the public square. It is also a not-to-subtle declaration to any political party that would try to claim the evangelicals for their own agendas.

Watch this water-shed press conference as four Prominent Evangelical leaders representing the Committee articulate for the secular press what they hope will restore the savor to the salt. VIDEO

 

Universal Questions that only Faith can answer

J.H.Bavinck was a renowned Dutch Missiologist. His book, An Introduction to the Science of Missions, (1954) was translated from the Dutch and published in Philadelphia in 1960. It has been used as a textbook in many schools ever since and it is still in print.  The following article is his perspective of those universal questions that all of us in one way or another seek to find answers for in our search for a meaningful life. We don’t have to agree with his categories to benefit from an understanding of just how similiar we are in some very basic instincts of life. The comments are from another book, The Church Between Temple and Mosque.

The Five Magnetic Points- J. H. Bavinck

Man by virtue of his place in the world, must always and everywhere give answers to the same questions. He has to struggle with the basic problems which his existence itself entails. He is afflicted by grief and misfortune; he meets both adverse and prosperous conditions; deep in his heart he has a vague feeling of responsibility; he has to adapt himself to the course of nature; he is aware he only a small being in the immeasurable greatness of the universe; and he knows very well that sooner or later death will knock at his door. Wherever he goes, he is surrounded by a multitude of questions, and although he has the power to escape from them for a certain time, he cannot help being overwhelmed by them at times. His being on earth is itself such an immense riddle that it threatens to crush him. The answers to all the questions with which he has to struggle may be different, but the problems themselves are always the same. And he has to respond to them, not only in his thinking and feeling but also in his whole attitude to life, in his acts and rites, in his existence itself; his whole way of life is a response. Therefore it stand to reason that this universal religious consciousness, with all its antagonisms and tensions, is something real and is to be found wherever men live and toil.

We have a lot to talk with people of other Faiths about. Somehow I have to believe that there must be a “civilized” way we can be who we are and let others know by our lives “whose disciples we are”. May the beauty of the Lord our God be seen in those who claim to know Him.

 

 

 

Proclaiming the Promise of Peace

The Church’s Gift to the World

 

As declared earlier on this blog, the Church of Christ, according to the Christian Faith, is the most powerful force on earth when she is healthy. The Church has been given a life and a message to give to the world. Because of all the dissonance in what the world is hearing today from the churches, that very gift is turned into something unlovely and undesirable and more than a few are rejecting what they perceive as the message.

 

As a recent post was meant to show, the message is not about do’s and don’t do’s nor is it about the externals of religion such as rites, ceremonies, and creeds. No, the message given to the Church for the world’s healing, is all about a person: the Lord God’s Anointed Son, Jesus. He himself is the one that must be communicated in our message and if He is not, then we have failed. It’s really that simple. He alone is the one who brings true and lasting peace to the nations. He is the Prince of Peace. The Gospel of Peace is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

T.M.Moore, in his column, Second Sight, wrote a series on the very subject of the good news of the Church’s message of peace. He began in the Advent season and concluded it in January of this year. It is so good that I quote from it and if you like what you read, you can follow the link back to the final article in the series.

 

The Good News of the kingdom of peace is certainly that—Good News—but it is not exclusively that. In the same breath that Jesus granted the gift of peace to His disciples, (John 16) He warned them that trial and tribulation lay ahead. The record of the apostles, and of the entirety of church history, is that our Lord knew whereof He spoke.

The prospect of peace, while available to all, is extended only to those who find favor with God. This was the announcement the angels made to the shepherds on the night of Jesus’ birth. Frequently mistranslated, the angels’ announcement was not, “Peace on earth, good will toward men,” but, “Peace among those with whom He is pleased” (Luke 2:14). God parcels out His peace, from the depths of the soul to all our relationships, roles, and responsibilities, through all of culture and society, to those with whom He is pleased—to those, that is, who seek His peace in the kingdom of peace and through the Prince of Peace, our Lord Jesus Christ. And this, of course, large numbers of people are manifestly unwilling to do. We may expect many of them, therefore, to oppose our agenda of peace, not because they do not wish for peace, but because they want peace on their own terms, apart from any obligation to Jesus or God…

In view of the certainty of opposition to our agenda of peace, how shall we keep peace as a priority within the community of faith? And what shall we do to seek peace, pursue the prospect of it, and allow it the primacy in our lives, in every area of our lives?

 

 

 Full article at Parceling Peace.