see Kings Mission and Community
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Smiling Jesus
I really love this picture for some reason. The children and the women are lovely - and Jesus has such an amazing smile. He's totally in the moment and you can completely understand why they love him! The picture just makes me grin and grin when I look at it!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
EUGENE PETERSON on Well-Worn Paths
"Christians tramp well-worn paths: obedience has a history.
"This history is important, for without it we are at the mercy of whims. Memory is a databank we use to evaluate our position and make decisions. With a biblical memory we have two thousand years of experience from which to make the off-the-cuff responses that are required each day in the life of faith. If we are going to live adequately and maturely as the people of God, we need more data to work from than our own experience can give us. ...
"A Christian who has David in his bones, Jeremiah in his bloodstream, Paul in his fingertips and Christ in his heart will know how much and how little value to put on his own momentary feelings and the experience of the last week. ...
"What we require is obedience - the strength to stand and the willingness to leap, and the sense to known when to do which. Which is exactly what we get when an accurate memory of God's ways is combined with a lively hope in his promises."
From 'A Long Obedience in the Same Direction' by Eugene Peterson
"This history is important, for without it we are at the mercy of whims. Memory is a databank we use to evaluate our position and make decisions. With a biblical memory we have two thousand years of experience from which to make the off-the-cuff responses that are required each day in the life of faith. If we are going to live adequately and maturely as the people of God, we need more data to work from than our own experience can give us. ...
"A Christian who has David in his bones, Jeremiah in his bloodstream, Paul in his fingertips and Christ in his heart will know how much and how little value to put on his own momentary feelings and the experience of the last week. ...
"What we require is obedience - the strength to stand and the willingness to leap, and the sense to known when to do which. Which is exactly what we get when an accurate memory of God's ways is combined with a lively hope in his promises."
From 'A Long Obedience in the Same Direction' by Eugene Peterson
God IN the story
I've been struck recently on the amazingness of 'God IN the story'. That it makes no sense at all to talk about God being 'unchanging' - partly because of the compassion issue - but primarily because of the incarnation. God is not so 'outside' time to the extent that it makes nonsense of the fact that at a particular time in history he changed in his very being... humanity has been 'added' to God (thus says the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity!). Yes, God's character has not changed, but fundamentally something has been added to his very being and importantly this has happened IN history. Wow!
Atonement ...further remarks
Here are a couple of things I've been reminded about in looking at the different theories of the atonement recently. I've called them 'things to keep in mind'.
Substitutionary Penal Atonement
In talking about the Father’s wrath on the Son it is important not to draw too firm a line between them. God takes sin on himself and suffers his own judgement in the person of Jesus. Ultimately God satisfies himself.
Christus Victor
It is important to remember that in talking about the triumph of Jesus over the powers of evil, that this is not a military triumph, a triumph of violence over violence, but a triumph of love. This kind of love is something that evil cannot understand… thus the powers are ‘disarmed’.
Substitutionary Penal Atonement
In talking about the Father’s wrath on the Son it is important not to draw too firm a line between them. God takes sin on himself and suffers his own judgement in the person of Jesus. Ultimately God satisfies himself.
Christus Victor
It is important to remember that in talking about the triumph of Jesus over the powers of evil, that this is not a military triumph, a triumph of violence over violence, but a triumph of love. This kind of love is something that evil cannot understand… thus the powers are ‘disarmed’.
Monday, November 19, 2007
The Atonement and onwards
As I mentioned in my last post, I've recently been considering some aspects of the atonement and the different ways of explaining what God has done for us in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In recent years I have become more sympathetic to the 'Christus Victor' theme as a way as describing in a cosmic sense what Jesus accomplished in his death and resurrection. In the context of this overarching triumph over the forces of evil, there are clearly many aspects to what Jesus' death means for us in particular. He took on himself the punishment for our rebellion against God and our evil deeds (penal substition), he paid the price (took the full consequences) for our sin ("the wages of sin is death" Rom 6.23), he died and rose again that we might have new life in him, he closed the book on the old covenant (see Romans 7)... and so on.
However, my recent re-reading of the NT and OT texts has given me lots of new things to ponder (some of which I hope to return to in later posts), and I am currently pursuing some avenues of thought in the OT (about blood if you want to know!). In my short investigation so far, none of the standard ways of speaking about the atonement (except for the most straightforward - e.g. 'Jesus died in my place'), have not felt entirely satisfactory, not quite telling the whole story. My hope, and it is a naive one perhaps, is that I will find a way to construct for myself a way of talking about the atonement that relies on Biblical language and reflects as best I can the fullness, and yet simplicity, of what God has done for us in Jesus' death and resurrection. I cannot pretend that I expect to complete this search but I'm sure it will be an interesting journey!
In my wanderings, I aim to keep three markers in sight. Firstly, I will keep foremost in my mind's eye a vision of the cross that once held the creator and saviour of the universe - but is now empty. In this I hope to follow Paul's insistence in 1 Corinthians 15 that "If Christ has not been raised... you are still in your sins."
Secondly, I shall keep my eye to the picture of Jesus that we have in Revelation chapter 5.
Finally, I will strive to keep in mind Paul's warnings about 'earthly wisdom' in 1 Corinthians 1. Ultimately it's not a question of wisdom, but of power: while the cross seems like foolishness to those that are perishing, to us who are being saved it is the power of God. At the end of the day, as my friend Archie says, 'It works'.
In recent years I have become more sympathetic to the 'Christus Victor' theme as a way as describing in a cosmic sense what Jesus accomplished in his death and resurrection. In the context of this overarching triumph over the forces of evil, there are clearly many aspects to what Jesus' death means for us in particular. He took on himself the punishment for our rebellion against God and our evil deeds (penal substition), he paid the price (took the full consequences) for our sin ("the wages of sin is death" Rom 6.23), he died and rose again that we might have new life in him, he closed the book on the old covenant (see Romans 7)... and so on.
However, my recent re-reading of the NT and OT texts has given me lots of new things to ponder (some of which I hope to return to in later posts), and I am currently pursuing some avenues of thought in the OT (about blood if you want to know!). In my short investigation so far, none of the standard ways of speaking about the atonement (except for the most straightforward - e.g. 'Jesus died in my place'), have not felt entirely satisfactory, not quite telling the whole story. My hope, and it is a naive one perhaps, is that I will find a way to construct for myself a way of talking about the atonement that relies on Biblical language and reflects as best I can the fullness, and yet simplicity, of what God has done for us in Jesus' death and resurrection. I cannot pretend that I expect to complete this search but I'm sure it will be an interesting journey!
In my wanderings, I aim to keep three markers in sight. Firstly, I will keep foremost in my mind's eye a vision of the cross that once held the creator and saviour of the universe - but is now empty. In this I hope to follow Paul's insistence in 1 Corinthians 15 that "If Christ has not been raised... you are still in your sins."
Secondly, I shall keep my eye to the picture of Jesus that we have in Revelation chapter 5.
"See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah...has triumphed!"I am convinced that no doctrine of the atonement can be complete unless it embraces fully the picture of Jesus we see in these verses: both triumphant Lion and slain Lamb.
Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the centre of the throne...
Finally, I will strive to keep in mind Paul's warnings about 'earthly wisdom' in 1 Corinthians 1. Ultimately it's not a question of wisdom, but of power: while the cross seems like foolishness to those that are perishing, to us who are being saved it is the power of God. At the end of the day, as my friend Archie says, 'It works'.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
The Widow and the King
I've just finished re-reading 'The Widow and the King' by John Dickinson, a teenage medieval fantasy that my brother Leo bought me a couple of years back. We both read and enjoyed his first book, 'The Cup of the World' and then had to read the sequel. They're a great couple of books, engaging and intelligent, and I'm always left with plenty to think about.
'The Widow and the King' is about a boy's escape from, and finally battle against, an enemy he variously calls the 'Heron Man' or 'The Prince Under the Sky'*. The Prince is a formidable and very creepy enemy who is always working in the background, whispering in peoples' ears, bringing down kings and corrupting the wise, bringing despair and destruction. It's not hard to see why I found in this book a worldview I could understand! The book is really quite scary at times, and there is a coherent (and occasionally heartbreaking) inevitability to the character development.
(*this works well as a title for Satan doesn't it?)
This is ultimately a story of good against evil. The boy, Ambrose, is the son of a previous king and an obvious heir. He tries to do the right thing, but he's innocent of the realities of the world he lives in. The book tells the story of his journey to wisdom, whilst at the same time vindicating him in his innocence and goodness. Of course we know that, in this book as well as in life, goodness will conquer evil in the end, but in the meantime, the Prince is depressingly successful in his destructive and corrupting aims.
One of the major and most compelling themes in the book is the theme of forgiveness. Ambrose is convinced that forgiveness is necessary and that a king must have mercy. He argues this out with Aun, who knows by experience that a king who forgives an enemy instead of destroying him may suffer the consequences:
I've been thinking a lot about atonement recently and I'll probably be posting some of my reflections this week.. so until then.
'The Widow and the King' is about a boy's escape from, and finally battle against, an enemy he variously calls the 'Heron Man' or 'The Prince Under the Sky'*. The Prince is a formidable and very creepy enemy who is always working in the background, whispering in peoples' ears, bringing down kings and corrupting the wise, bringing despair and destruction. It's not hard to see why I found in this book a worldview I could understand! The book is really quite scary at times, and there is a coherent (and occasionally heartbreaking) inevitability to the character development.
(*this works well as a title for Satan doesn't it?)
This is ultimately a story of good against evil. The boy, Ambrose, is the son of a previous king and an obvious heir. He tries to do the right thing, but he's innocent of the realities of the world he lives in. The book tells the story of his journey to wisdom, whilst at the same time vindicating him in his innocence and goodness. Of course we know that, in this book as well as in life, goodness will conquer evil in the end, but in the meantime, the Prince is depressingly successful in his destructive and corrupting aims.
One of the major and most compelling themes in the book is the theme of forgiveness. Ambrose is convinced that forgiveness is necessary and that a king must have mercy. He argues this out with Aun, who knows by experience that a king who forgives an enemy instead of destroying him may suffer the consequences:
"And as for forgiving - it's not free, not even for a king. It's like taking on debt. And a king who forgives too much pays with his life. Remember that."There are so many interesting subthemes in the books, and half-references to a worldview which makes sense to me, that I'd probably be surprised if John Dickinson was not a Christian. But if he isn't - he's stumbled on some significant truths about the world. CS Lewis talks about all stories reflecting something of the 'BIG Story', so perhaps that's what's happened here.
I've been thinking a lot about atonement recently and I'll probably be posting some of my reflections this week.. so until then.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
