Threads from Henry's Web

Category: Christianity

YouVersion Verse of the Year

I received an email from YouVersion (I use their app occasionally) with their 2023 “verse of the year.” This is the verse that has been shared, bookmarked, and highlighted most often through their community.

It is Isaiah 41:10 (note that my links go to BibleGateway):

[D]o not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be afraid, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you; I will help you;
    I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
Isaiah 41:10 (NRSV)

I find this interesting as this is a verse that might be considered by some to be taken out of context. I don’t know if you’ve seen any examples, but there’s even a coffee cup that reads “I can do all things through a verse taken out of context.” This lampoons the frequent use of Philippians 4:13 as a promise that God will help you do anything, from winning in sports to success in your business, to successful family life, and beyond. More on this verse a few paragraphs down.

In the case of Isaiah 41:10, the specific reference is to the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylon, who are promised strength for the return and rebuilding. Isaiah 40 and onward, especially through 55, deals with these circumstances and is tremendously encouraging. So if you’re using it as encouragement in trying to get through your work week, you might well be taking it out of context.

If you take the Bible as a series of data points, this is fairly accurate. This is not, in its context, a promise for all times and places. You will still get tired. Bad things may happen to you, as they happened to Job and as they have happened to many of God’s servants through time.

So maybe it shouldn’t be used in the way that it is, likely the very usage that got it “verse of the year” from YouVersion.

I’d say, not so fast.

First, let me note, that many of those same servants of God who have grown weary and suffered through history have been sustained by verses like this. We might ask ourselves why that is. I haven’t run into that many Christians who really believe a Christian will never get tired. I don’t. Yet I appreciate this verse. I appreciate it even more when I’m bone weary and wondering whether I can take the next step.

Crazy man, eh? (Well, yes, I am crazy, but that’s not relevant!)

I recall C. S. Lewis’s image in The Magician’s Nephew, which I will always see as book 6 in the series however much publishers change it!) of a “deep magic from before the dawn of time” that overrides the rules that are known generally. Similarly, there’s context, and then there’s context.

If my intent is to answer the question, “What is Isaiah saying about God?” Then I’m going to answer in terms of the return from exile, and also note that the audience is Israel. On this basis, I could find ways to remove the majority of scripture from relevance to me today. God isn’t talking to me here. That promise doesn’t apply to me.

Scholars, and those who aim to appear scholarly, tend to wander about the landscape of scripture, informing the poor mortals who have been getting comfort from various passages that they are wrong, and that the scripture doesn’t mean what they think it means.

Very often, that is quite correct. Sometimes people can be dangerously wrong in what they’re getting from scripture.

But the problem is this: As scholars pull up the markers people have used to guide their lives, what do they hand out instead? With what do they replace these markers that have guided Bible readers’ relationship with God for decades, centuries, even millennia?

Oh, did I say the problem? There’s a second one. Are those who criticize sure they’re right when they say a passage does not apply?

I think very often they’re wrong, and I think many non-scholarly Christians living day-by-day relatively ordinary Christian lives instinctively get it more right. This is based on both a deeper and a broader context.

In the case of Isaiah 40, the exiles are promised strength. Now remember that these exiles were in no danger of thinking God was promising that no matter what happened, they would never get tired. They weren’t in danger of thinking that everything was going to be easy. No, they were headed out on a hard task, and they and their immediate ancestors had lived through the exile.

What was important was that God was with them and was now rescuing them and would be with them through all that came. In the broadest (and I think deepest) context of scripture, this is the story of the God who saves, built on the original story of the Exodus from Egypt. What do you suppose those Israelites thought about the idea that those who worship God would never suffer harm? They had even experienced some of the plagues right along with the Egyptians! They wandered through the wilderness. That experience was reinforced by the exile and restoration and became a foundation for the ultimate core story of Christianity, the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

As such, Christians should be very willing to take up the promises of these events just as they are taken up in the story of redemption. We serve a God who redeems. We serve a God who is with us through all our suffering, who is there when we are weary. We know these things happen to us. But we also know they happened to people in the past because we’ve read their stories (testimonies) and we know that God’s promises to them, always tempered by understanding the broad and deep context, and even the immediate literary context, do, in fact, apply to us.

I recall when a relative ripped one such verse from my mother, surely with good scholarly intent to maintain the accuracy of biblical interpretation. She had a favorite verse, Isaiah 49:25:

But thus says the Lord:
Even the captives of the mighty will be taken,
    and the prey of the tyrant will be rescued,
for I will contend with those who contend with you,
    and I will save your children.
Isaiah 49:25 (NRSV)

This relative pointed out to her the context, very much like the one in Isaiah 41, and part of the same sequence of materials (Isaiah 40-55 form a coherent block) did not involve making sure everyone’s children were saved, but simply that the children of those who had gone into exile would be saved and brought back to their land. She used this as encouragement about her children, which, he told her, was to use the passage out of context.

In the immediate context, that’s absolutely true. But in the broader and deeper context, this becomes part of the underlying story of redemption and of God’s intention for God’s people in all times and places. Readers should be encouraged by this, not because it was somehow specifically directed at them, but because it formed a formidable piece of the foundation of the story of a saving God, one who was and is with us in trouble, one who knows the pain, and yet one who takes us through to triumph.

I had an opportunity to discuss this with my mother many years ago, and when I had given my explanation, she simply said, “Then I’m taking my verse back!” And she did!

Philippians 4:13 can be used in many questionable ways, but it is not questionable to think that God will help you get through whatever situation you’re in. Many point out how this is about being able to carry out one’s mission despite hardships. And it is precisely that. But as a Christian, your life should be mission. I don’t think God is promising you that you’ll win all your games. Bluntly, most people, even those I’ve heard mocked about taking this out of context, don’t think it means that either.

But if you’re reading it that God is with you as you carry out whatever call God has put on your life, if you believe from this that God will be with you and strengthen you for God’s own purposes, then I think you’re reading the verse in the deeper context.

I want to end with one warning. Seeing this deeper context can help us connect with God through the story of scripture. We learn about relationship to God through reading about those who have been in such relationships over the centuries and millennia. When we read such a passage as giving us permission and power to carry out our own will wherever and whenever we want, we’re missing both the immediate context of scripture and also the broader and deeper context.

Suggestion: When you want to apply one of these promises, read the immediate context. Then ask yourself how those who first heard it might have experienced it. Try to join the story as you see it in their lives and find your courage there.

December 7, 2023
Agendas, Conversation, and Bible Reading

It’s not really a new thing, but in a number of conversations recently, both in person and online, I’ve been noticing agendas. Someone will make a comment or say something in a conversation that really doesn’t seem to make sense in context, but then if you consider a different context, you’ll suddenly see that the comment makes its own kind of sense.

I know I can do this. If there’s something on my mind that I feel is important, I will tend to tie it into a conversation whether it really fits or not. Other people in the conversation may wonder what’s going on. In real conversations, often the subject just wanders.

This is a natural process. If you’re trying to discuss something in particular, it can be disconcerting. I find it hard to lead in a meeting because my tendency is to try to figure out what the side comment is about and follow it right off the map! I have often asked my wife to lead meetings because she is good at bringing things back to the planned subject, thus letting us complete our agenda.

I often comment that God comes to us in Scripture for conversation while we tend to be looking for information. Now there’s nothing wrong with looking for information. There certainly is information in the Bible. But one can come out of the study of Scripture with a great deal of information and no transformation.

In particular, we tend to come to a book looking for information we believe we need. We come with an agenda. How shall I conduct my life? How should I do business? Is it permissible to do certain things?

Or there’s the more negative agenda of finding things I can use to condemn my neighbor. Where is the text that tells me that so-and-so is wrong?

When we come to Scripture in this way, we are likely to be led astray. Just like we edge conversations with other people right off the edge of the map due to our primary agenda, we can get a message from Scripture that is much more formed by our agenda than by the actual message and story presented in the Scripture passage(s) we consult.

An interesting example of this is the many centuries long search for a precise roadmap to the end of time or the end times. Date setters have repeatedly “found” dates in Scripture. How do they do that? They come to the Word with their own determination of what the Word must tell them. As a result, we have repeated examples of failed predictions, and still we have people looking for more.

For a Christian, the study of Scripture should be an encounter with God. That means coming ready to listen and coming ready to have your agenda adjusted. That will result in conversation and potentially transformation through the Spirit and God’s creative and powerful Word.

November 29, 2023
What Is the Bible For?

No, this is not a long dissertation on scripture and its various uses, though I love to talk about that.

For many, the purpose of scripture is to keep us on a doctrinally correct path. It tells us the things we are supposed to believe. Simply believing correctly is what’s important.

For me, however, a frequent value in scripture is the encounter with God guided by the Spirit, from which I get needed power for the moment. I’m not talking about obviously supernatural extra energy to do extraordinary things. I’m talking about the simple encouragement to help me move forward.

Today I was looking at this blog, and I noticed the theme text I placed on the sidebar. It has been there for three or four years, I think, but I saw it again today. It’s in Greek on the sidebar, but I’ll be nice and post it in English.

¹⁶So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For our slight, momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, ¹⁸because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen, for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NRSVue, via BibleGateway).

Now I’ve been struggling a bit with the state of my work and my efforts to get things caught up, something it seems I’m never going to do. No, I don’t find a promise there to tell me I’ll get things done by a certain time or that it’s all OK. I just got a lift. Keep going. Don’t let the temporary stop you.

It’s what I needed this morning.

November 24, 2023
After Teaching on the Sermon on the Mount
My Sunday School class just finished a several-week study on the Sermon on the Mount. We did not use any study guides as a class, though I consulted three books I publish, One World: The Lord’s Prayer from a Process Perspective, The Jesus Manifesto: A Participatory Study Guide to the Sermon on the Mount, and Ultimate Allegiance: The Subversive Nature of the Lord’s Prayer. Some class members did make use of those references, and I also provided links to and some printed copies of John Wesley’s sermons on this topic. Class members also used a variety of Bible translations and other reference works.

At the end of the class, one of the members commented that he was very glad to have studied the entire sermon, because he could see how it fit together and how the various parts built on others. He commented that we often read the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer, while not continuing to cover the rest of the three chapters.

Over the years I have read and studied this sermon many times, and I never fail to find something new with each adventure in it. There are three (well, maybe four) general approaches to it.

First, let me dismiss my “maybe four.” I had one young man come to my house to try to get me saved. That I already professed Christianity was not important to him. I needed to understand it the way he did. One of the things he wanted me to understand was salvation by faith, which in his view eliminated anything having to do with works. He specifically told me that the Sermon on the Mount does not apply to Christians. I found it interesting that the longest collection of the teachings of Jesus we have was regarded as not applicable.

Dismissing dismissal, I have found three general approaches, with the first two covering most and the third as a sort of supplement based on sermons I’ve heard.
1. The sermon is a description of righteousness, designed to let us know we can’t attain it, and drive us to the cross.
2. The sermon contains the central ethical teachings of Jesus which we are expected to follow.
3. The sermon is descriptive of ways in which our behavior impacts others and our own social environment, and provides a guide to more effective functioning of society.
I’ve intentionally made these as distinctive as possible. One of the things that struck me as I studied this time was that the sermon truly can function in all three ways. You might expect a Reformed theologian to embrace something like #1. Wesleyans might tend more toward #2. I’ve only heard a few people who go purely one way or another, though they often sound like they do! The third option is more often exhibited in preaching broadly based on the sermon when the speaker is trying to make applications in the social gospel.

It struck me this time through that all three elements are present. There are repeated indications that the expectations expressed are well beyond our ordinary capabilities. Loving your enemies is well beyond most of us, though I’ve heard people cut the command down to size to make it possible. Consider, however, that Jesus’ own demonstration of this command involved requesting that the Father forgive those who were in the process of crucifying him.

In the class we all commented on how potentially frightening it was to sincerely pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Do you really want to be forgiven as you forgive? Perhaps you are a paragon on virtue in the matter of forgiveness, but I suspect not many of us are.

Then there is the simple matter of most of chapter five, which sees all these things as expressions of what’s in the heart. I shocked some in the class by explaining that I had been a murderer during the prior week. I had been on the phone with a customer “service” rep who whose ignorance was exceeded only by his arrogance. (Can you perceive me despising him even now?) I told them that if I’d been physically with him, I’d likely have strangled him. Jesus isn’t giving me points for not being able to carry this out.

Thus I think that the Sermon on the Mount very much calls us to realize that we are quite imperfect, and also directs us to an unattainable standard. That’s where grace comes in, and grace is reflected in some of those very passages on forgiveness. God is more forgiving than we are.

At the same time, there is a great deal of value in the second way of looking at this. However unattainable the standard is, it is a good one. That is, it tells us about things that are good to do. The problem with perfection is that you fail to attain it, and end up apathetic. I can’t do what I’m supposed to, so why do anything? Perfectionism has created a large number of failures.

The problem is that each time you lower the standard, you end up aiming lower. If you’re headed north following the north star you know you’re unlikely to get to that north star, or even the north pole. But if you decide that unattainability makes it unimportant, you’re likely to get nowhere. That’s where keeping a high standard and incredible grace together does well.

I can’t resist quoting one of my favorite scriptures: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13). We often hear that preached by halves. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” from someone who was only vaguely aware of the next verse, if at all. Similarly, we can say, “It’s God, so don’t bother to do anything.” Neither of these is effective.

And that leads to the third point. I wouldn’t use the third option alone, but in many cases this sermon shows us how society works. “Forgive and you will be forgiven,” speaks of God’s forgiveness, but also points to a way of life. The one who is unforgiving builds an atmosphere of unforgiveness. “Judge not, lest you be judged,” is also a very good principle in society. The verse, Matthew 7:1, is one of the more abused passages in scripture with some destroying it by overapplication and others essentially dismissing it by referencing exceptions.

Jesus himself provides some clarification in Matthew 7:15-20. Thus we wind up with those who avoid 7:1 by calling every judgment “fruit inspection” and those who eliminate fruit inspection by calling it all judgment. Both passages are right there and both apply. There’s some wisdom needed, and doubtless we will not attain perfection!

I enjoyed reading these passages and looking for the variety of applications. I’m grateful for grace in all circumstances. I’m grateful for a standard, which tells me that God’s glorious purpose is greater than I can imagine. Finally, I’m grateful for wisdom in looking at how we can better live with one another.

It’s an error to treat everything as an answer to the question of whether one is going to heaven. Some things are about a better life here as well.
May 9, 2023
Stephen S.J. Hill on Our Much Loved Identity

S.J. Hill Interviewed by Barry Adams

It is very difficult to get me to watch any video. Yes, that’s true, even though I create videos and do online interviews on multiple subjects. It’s not my medium of choice. Getting me to watch an hour extends into the impossible.

But I watched this one …

I recommend that everyone, but especially those involved in ministry, whether pastoral, teaching, missions, or any other service activity, listen to this and take it in. I have dealt with this myself.

When are you good enough?

Change the question!

Note: As the owner of Energion Publications, I am the publisher of S.J.’s book What’s God Really Like?. I recommend the book as well!

What’s God Really Like

April 6, 2023
By the Wife of Uriah

Today as I walked I was listening to the Bible and starting the book of Matthew. Now Matthew, to the annoyance of many, starts with a genealogy.

Are you one of those people who skip genealogies?

Here’s what hit me today. In Matthew 1:6b I heard this “And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah.” Now I knew this, but it struck me, and immediately connected to “Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab” (v 5).

What’s so important about this?

Well, this is the genealogy of Jesus, supposed to be the Messiah, the King of Kings. And we are see these items in his ancestry detailed. The Bible writers did not tend to whitewash the difficult parts of the story. Indeed, they emphasize the many questionable moments in the story of redemption.

It is the story of redemption, after all!

Image by falco from Pixabay

January 21, 2023
The Wrath of the Lamb

Sometimes the process of preparing to teach Sunday School takes interesting turns, at least for me.

I’m currently teaching from the Sermon on the Mount, and I was thinking about the transition from the beatitudes to the discussion of fulfilling the law. Sometimes we get so used to the way Scripture passages read that we don’t really notice the impact they would have had. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness …” transitions to “unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.” We’re used to thinking of Pharisees as bad guys, and we can immediately translate that statement mentally into something less than it would have been to those who first heard it.

It’s easy to suggest that the Sermon on the Mount does not represent some singular sermon, and that perhaps the beatitudes and the teaching on the law contained in Chapter 5 weren’t really run together that way when Jesus taught them. Indeed, the different settings for portions of the sermon in Luke might suggest that we have compilations of sayings rather than complete sermons.

But, and it’s an important ‘but’, someone thought these two things went together. I love form, source, and redaction criticism and believe they provide important insights, allowing us to learn from the prehistory of the text in front of us, but in a case like this, they just kick the ball down the field a bit. We still should ask just why the passages go together.

Let me skip my own answer, which I already had in mind, and go with the experience of thinking about the passage. I like to read what I’m going to teach very early, usually the Sunday afternoon after the previous lesson, and then think about it through the week.

In this case, I had just gotten a new audio Bible (NRSV) for Audible (unfortunately it is no longer available). I wasn’t actually intending to think about the passage, and I just let the audiobook continue from where I had last left it, which happened to be in Revelation 6. I got to 6:16, and heard the words “the wrath of the lamb.” Or “hide us … from the wrath of the lamb.”

Now here’s another phrase that doesn’t always have full impact. It takes on that “scriptury” sense in which we imbue it with holiness and piously let the jarring nature of the statement slip by.

So picture a cute, wooly, harmless lamb. Now picture crowds of people calling for mountains or large rocks to fall on them — splat! — to save them from the wrath of, well, that fluffy bundle of cuteness. For Monty Python fans, let me note that it calls to my mind vorpal bunnies.

So we go back a bit in Scripture to Revelation 5:5-6:

(5) One of the elders said to me: ‘Do not weep; the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the shoot growing from David’s stock, has won the right to open the scroll and its seven seals.’ (6) Then I saw a Lamb with the marks of sacrifice on him …
Revelation 5:5-6a

I could spend all kinds of time on this, but I’m just looking at one thing: The Lion is the Lamb. Of course, if you read the texts I first reference in context, you’d also note that the fear of the wrath of the lamb was combined with fear of the one sitting on the throne.

In this case, we have a direct literary relationship. In chapter 6, John is doubtlessly connecting referencing this lamb, who is also not just a, but the Lion. Slightly more intimidating than the wooly lamb I evoked earlier.

So this turned my mind to something I get from orthodox theology, in this case the incarnation. Jesus is presented as totally human and totally divine. Compare Hebrews 2:17-18 to Hebrews 7:26-28 display a combination of incompatible features. One plus one equals one. Not normal logic.

I like to distinguish belief in three ways. There is believing that. One can believe that something is true without absorbing it or responding to it. I believe that an aircraft is airworthy and safe, but I stay on the ground. Then there is believing in. In this case belief leads to a trust in the thing in which we believe. I believe that the aircraft is airworthy and safe, so assuming the crew is good as well, I get on board and fly. Then there is believing through. That is when I use one belief to impact the way I understand and respond to other things. In the case of the aircraft analogy I now learn to put reasonable trust in things in which it is reasonable to have confidence.

In Christian terms, I go from believing that Jesus rose from the dead, to putting my trust in “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith,” and from there to living a life defined by not just by the hope of the resurrection but of the character and power combined of one who gave himself to death and arose. There is some room here to live in hope. The hope comes from seeing other things in the light of my belief in the resurrection.

Now back to the incarnation, and lions, and lambs.

There are many things that thinking conditioned (transformed?) by the incarnation can be, many of them at the same time. One is that we lose the binary sense. To take us back to Revelation 5, we can see in one person the Lion and the Lamb. We can see gentleness and sacrifice on the one hand and wrath on the other, all in the form of a wooly lamb, one that someone already sacrificed. That’s seeing these things through our belief in an orthodox doctrine. I have heard folks argue forcefully for an orthodox statement of doctrine, but seeing it only as a thing that must be affirmed to be true, and not something that impacts the rest of our lives.

I maintain rather that if you really believe in something like the incarnation, it will reshape your thinking all over the place. Constantly. Irrevocably.

I recall hearing Deanna Thompson, author of the Deuteronomy volume in the Belief Commentary series. She is a feminist and a liberationist. She recalled wondering why she should be the one to write a commentary on Deuteronomy. But she said that as she wrote the commentary, she realized that “a God without wrath will never liberate anybody.” A God such as the one presented in Deuteronomy.

The Lamb is the Lion. They are not incompatible.

And then another thing came to mind. I recently watched the movie “Aristocats” again. It’s a favorite of mine. It includes a song with the line:

Everybody! Everybody! Everybody wants to be a cat!
Aristocats

At this point I imagine you’re thinking I’m a bit odd in the things I connect. I also assure you that I like cats.

But if you look around church, everybody wants to be a cat. That is, we want to get to the Lion part of the act, or the rider on the white horse. We long (as the readers of Revelation did) for the avenging God who does nice things for the good guys (surely this includes us!) and gets all the bad guys. If possible, we want to skip over all the lamblike stuff, and definitely that “slain” stuff.

So I wind back toward my original topic again, as I know you’re wondering what all of this has to do with Matthew 5? And indeed, in listening to Revelation I had every intention of not working on my Sunday School lesson.

But Matthew 5 challenges us in a similar way. Jesus is here both the lamb who has humbled himself and is living as one of us, the “gentle Jesus, meek and mild,” and also the one who says our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (remember that the audience would see that as a high standard), that we must be perfect, and that even being angry or insulting a brother can lead to hell.

The Lamb is the Lion. Love and wrath work together. It’s not either-or, but both and.

Featured image by Catherine Stockinger from Pixabay

January 21, 2023
So Why Not Change?

Sojourners has an article titled SEVEN LIES ABOUT CHRISTIANITY — WHICH CHRISTIANS BELIEVE.

There’s a great deal here that I resonate with, especially in the seventh point:

The problem with romanticizing Christianity is that we turn our faith into a product, using various selling points to make it look more attractive.
Sojo.net

But what I’m responding to is the part about ministry and evangelism:

Pastors and missionaries are considered high-risk candidates within the medical community because of their susceptibility to addiction, stress, and abuse.
Sojo.net

I was first made acquainted with this problem when I was studying in seminary and was told that the seminary students had higher rates of various problems, such as divorce. I was tutoring Greek and Hebrew for the seminarians (I was in the School of Graduate Studies, though sharing many classes), and this was brought to my attention because of academic expectations. Many of the seminarians found the academic class schedule very challenging. I could see they were gifted for pastoral ministry, but some of what the academics, such as I hoped to be, expected of them was stressful rather than helpful.

My question is this: Why don’t we change the way we do things? I have commented before on realistic job descriptions for pastors. Our expectations are extremely high. We expect them to do all the work of the church from visiting the sick and those shut-in to evangelism and ministry. Everyone in our society seems trained to go right to the top, and in the way we portray pastoral ministry, that’s the pastor.

I consider this a major failing of Christian life and Christian ministry. Every Christian is called to ministry, that is to service of others, according to their gifts. Nobody should be getting burned out by the kinds of expectations we have of our pastors and other church leaders.

My friend (and Energion author) Dave Black often comments that he’s waiting for the church sign that reads “Whatever Name Church – Head Pastor, Jesus – Ministers, the entire congregation – Servants to the ministers, the church staff.” (For more, see Seven Marks of a New Testament Church.)

I wrote a fictional short story about this some time ago titled Our Pastor Is Lazy. In this case, while the story is fictional, I think it’s exceptionally true. Over and over again.

Let’s not just shake our heads about this. Let’s do something.

January 19, 2023
Jumping the Christmas Gap
Most of the time I’m suggesting that people lighten up when they get too deep into theology, so today, when people are lightening up, I want to talk a bit of theology.

This day represents the core of my Christian faith in so many ways. When I get into discussions about what is essential in Christianity, I always jump straight to the incarnation. There are other ways of thinking about this, but this is the core of my faith, and the launching point for my understanding of ethics.

All the examples, yelling, legislation, enforcement, and incentives in the world do not do what the incarnation does for me.

It’s all about jumping gaps.

You may go on to bridge gaps later, but we start with a jump. And as Christians (of orthodox theology) that’s the incarnation. Infinite God jumps the distance between infinity and the finite. Contemplating the vastness of the universe as we know it can make us feel very small. The distance between infinity and the finite is, by definition, greater than the difference between me and the universe with trillions of galaxies.

I believe God crossed that gap. I can talk about this in many ways, but that sets the standard.

I’m teaching through the sermon on the mount with my Sunday School class, and we’re dealing as a whole with passages on the law in Matthew 5:17-48. Verse 48 says to “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Ouch!

But it’s a really glorious ouch! This is the example set.

One of my three favorite books of the Bible, the ones that I find most definitive for my theology, is Hebrews. Hebrews opens with this passage:

¹In old times God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets in many portions and in different ways. ²In these last days, however, he has spoken to us through a Son, one whom he has made heir of everything, and through whom also he created the universe. ³This Son is the brightness of his glory and the exact representation of his real essence. He sustains everything by his powerful word. He performed a cleansing from sins and sat down at the right hand of majesty in the {spiritual/heavenly} heights. ⁴Thus he became as much greater than the angels as the fame {reputation} he has inherited is of a more outstanding nature than theirs.
Hebrews 1:1-4 (my translation, emphasis added)

Across the impossible gap, God communicated with us.

This differs almost infinitely from anything we would conceive of doing. For us, it would be a military campaign, or a program of political or religious persuasion. To but it bluntly and simply, God instead showed up on our level and said, “Hi! I’m the One.”

Helpless.

In a manger.

Now I find that an amazing concept in itself, but I also see both an invitation and a challenge. The invitation, amongst many other things, says that more things than you can imagine are possible. I’ve set the standard, opened the path, connected with you, and I’m ready to work in you.

As Paul says in Philippians 2:5-11, Jesus, the anointed one, didn’t consider the heavenly glory and power something to cling to, but rather emptied himself. Then in the next couple of verses he points us to the Way that this works. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Sometimes we stop there. That’s because we haven’t gotten the incarnation. We think that the best way to get things done is to hassle and harangue, to push and force.

The incarnation, on the contrary, says to us, “I value you enough to jump across infinity to reach you.”

If you get that, you aren’t going to try to fly the gap the other way. You’ll realize that won’t work. That’s why the next verse in Philippians says, “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do God’s good pleasure.” The book of Hebrews expresses this in 10:20 as “a new and living way, His (Christ’s) flesh.”

I read and meditate on these verses, and what comes to me is this: How can I find it so difficult to jump the gap between myself and other people
- Down the pew from me in church
- Across the aisle
- Of different denominations
- Of different religions
- Of different cultures
- Of different skin colors
- Of diffent opinions and lifestyles in so many possible ways
“But they’re wrong!” someone retorts. Humorously, I’ve heard this more often about the color of the carpet, the placement of the pews, or the style of the music than about the apparently more weighty differences.

When Jesus reached out to me, I was not right. I needed spiritual change. I needed other changes in my life. If Jesus waited for us all to be right, no salvation would ever happen. It would be like a doctor refusing to treat people who were not already healthy, only worked out on an infinite scale.

But remember, reaching out is not about you fixing everybody. That’s because you and I are not all right ourselves. We cross the gaps in relationships, bring that connection to the infinite with us. The rest is up to God and the flawed human to whom we’ve crossed the gap. I don’t have the plan. I don’t have the power. I’m just hopefully letting God work through me.

I’ve commented on this to many classes. People say they are not ready to be witnesses. Why? They have problems. They don’t know enough. They don’t have all the answers. Some suggest I go speak to people for them, using my greater training. Everyone is always a witness. The question is what kind. Is God working in and through you, or are you getting in the way.

The distance between me and God is not measurably different than the distance between God and the worst sinner out there. With God providing the power, surely I can cross the gap to anyone.
December 25, 2022
Habitually Going to Church?

You will find more infographics at Statista
Interesting! It used to be said that if the habit is established while they’re young, they won’t lose it later. I don’t know how true that might have been, but it doesn’t appear to work in this chart.

December 22, 2022