God's Desire, My Apathy.

“For this [is] good and acceptable in sight of the Savior, our God, who all people he is desiring be saved and into knowledge of the truth to come.” 1 Tim 2:3-4


:: Upon a cursory reading of the second chapter of 1 Timothy, the first six verses are easily passed over far too quickly; either as simply an extended exhortation to prayer en route to many further exhortations regarding all manner of doctrine and practice, or as a straightforward build-up on the way to more difficult and/or controversial passages. To do so, however, is to bypass the heart of all that Paul proceeds to say afterwards; the foundation and wellspring of his passion for these matters at hand. Most simply put, upon deeper examination of these few verses, I find the Gospel itself, hidden in plain view; with no less than the heart of God presented as the reason and resource for all that the Church is called to be and do. God desires the salvation and restoration of all people, because in Jesus Christ he has ransomed all people; as such he calls forth his Church, in witness, teaching, ministry and prayer, to purpose itself unto the benefit of all people. God’s heart is ever and presently bent in love towards the whole world; in the outworking of the transformation of redemption upon our own hearts, the same ought be true of us.

Too often, whether through fear, discouragement or simple apathy, I find that it is easy to pursue the eternal benefit and healing of those around me in a half-hearted manner, if at all. Too easily I resign myself to the foregone conclusion that not everyone will respond positively to the gospel; I set my expectations low, as not to be disappointed. I do not risk myself – my pride, my time, my reputation – for those around me. I call it “reality”; at the heart of my inaction, however, the truth is that I simply cannot surrender myself and my self interest enough to care – or at least, not to care enough. I build this inactive response upon my ‘knowledge’ and my own experience, and while I might honestly say that this subconscious pessimism is simply realistic, it is ‘realism’ of this sort that brings death to our compassion. It is this subtle line of thought that leads people, and churches, to insularity; gradually setting our sights and hearts only upon those who we naturally find in our midst on the basis of easy affinity, with little thought or capacity to care about those we don’t.

Paul’s words here regarding the nature of God’s longing draw a stark contrast on this point. This God, who due to his infinite knowledge and boundless foresight has infinitely greater justification for pessimism and resignation than I, is yet defined, in God’s very character, by hope. Some will reject, many will refuse his love, yet knowing this more clearly than I will ever have the capacity to know, this God even now continues to desire for the salvation, the healing and redemption of every person. Is this simply divine naïveté, or is something deeper at work here? Is God eternally unrealistic? No, God is more realistic than we can ever hope to comprehend. In fact, it is this reality, this “knowledge of the truth” that God most longs for every person to take hold of. To be saved, in this light, is to repent of our unreality – to turn from the lies in which we live that tell us that we are alone, hopeless, un-vouched for and unloved. To “be saved” is simply to come into knowledge of the truth that we HAVE been saved; ransomed, paid for, and set free. To remain in darkness is simply to refuse to open our eyes. To remain in slavery is simply to refuse to accept that we have been ransomed out from it.

As such, God himself is perpetually moved in compassion and desire for all people; in heartbreak for their self-deception and in hope for their redemption in the truth. And, in those of us who have been brought to life and freedom, the heart of God compels us into compassion, action and witness, for the sake of all people, in resonance with the hope and desire of God himself; in prayer, teaching, and action.

Phillipians 3

pastor chris.

When we are young, we constantly strive to be perceived and regarded as somewhat older than we are. We relish any opportunity to be included in the conversations or activities of an older caste; hanging out with the 'big kids', being able to sit at the 'grown-up' table at family gatherings, etc. Growing up itself is, in many ways, a process of testing the limits of when we might genuinely come to be included, in the perception of our peers and community, in that cumulative tier of maturity that is, at present, just beyond us.

Until such a time as this is the case, we pretend; enacting adventures, both dangerous and docile, smoking a stolen cigarette, or driving the parents car around an empty lot. We pretend until our fantasy of greater maturity is actually attained, at which point we set the sights of our hopeful pretense yet another rung higher. At some point, this process of pretense and attainment begins to climax; the distance between reality and what was initially only fantasy becoming less and less.

When I was six years old, perhaps I would pretend that I was a grown man with a job and a family, mimicking my father in the form of something that might be decades away. When I was in high school, perhaps the thought of college life captured my imagination; this only four years removed from my present. In our twenties, maybe it is a job we aspire to, or a promotion; ultimately things only months out of our reach, depending on circumstance... At some point, we are finally forced to realize that we have arrived at 'maturity'; that place of regard and responsibility that we have been striving and pretending at our whole lives, whether or not it actually looks like we had thought or hoped. Eventually, after coming to grips with this climax, many people find themselves, suddenly and strangely, wishing that they were younger.

But alas, the march of time knows no reverse. Our pretense only works in one direction.

It seems that I have arrived at a place that was only once a distant dream; career, promotion, responsibility... a wife, a house, and soon a child. I look around now, and I realize that all these people around me believe that this is who I really am; mature, responsible... an adult. And, I can't help but wonder when they'll find me out... when they'll realize that this is just a game. I wonder when they'll realize that I am really just a child who has been pretending to be grown... Because I don't have this thing figured out yet. I don't really know what I am doing. I'm just making all this up as I go along.

Life these days feels as if I am riding the crest of a wave; who I am and where I will be tomorrow doesn't actually exist until the moment I arrive... as if the ground itself that I am walking on does not exist until the moment my foot falls to meet it. I worry about the day when my imagination will fail me, when I will fail to imagine the next step into existence, causing me to stumble, and this house of cards to collapse. Because this is uncharted territory, filled with the unknown, threatening to bring me to the end of what my competency can muster.

But then I wonder if maybe... maybe this is what it means to walk by faith. Maybe this is the essence of what it means to allow God to lead us into the heart of a calling and a life that is greater than ourselves; greater than we can even imagine. Maybe it is here, as we are forced to reckon with the inability of our own competency to lead us into the realization of tomorrow, that we discover what faith really is. Maybe to be grown is not to come to the place where we believe that we've got this life figured out, but rather to realize that we never will; to surrender to trust that God will guide us into tomorrow, creating it before us even as we go.

The dew of creation is yet fresh upon this day. I did not know what it would hold before I got here, and tomorrow is hidden by the mists of pre-existence. But I will walk forward in the trust in my creator and sustainer; the giver of breath to my lungs and words to my heart. I do not have wisdom enough for even today, but his wisdom and love is sufficient to bring about all my days that have yet to be. So I cast myself upon Him, His hands and heart and purposes, in trust and faith, and in the divine joy that is found in surrender to the one who is truly sufficient for me.

Next Tat?

:: I've been doing some thinking/work on my next potential tattoo... I've already got a good idea for a shoulder piece. This (above) would be a bicep arm band. It's based on an abbreviated personal 'rule of life'; Creation, Labor, Sabbath, and Word. This design attempts to visually evoke a balance and rhythm of life that I constantly need to be reminded of; four echoes of the rhythms of Grace that God has created me to live within.

Fatherhood.

Two months ago, I turned 27 years old. Two months ago, I also found out that I am going to be a father. Holy fear has taken on a new definition for me. When we first found out, the two days that followed felt like one long, drawn out heart attack. Since then, I have settled into a cathartic blend of fear and excitement, flavored by the quiet disbelief that in less than 6 months my life, as I now know it, will have changed forever. My relationship with my wife will have changed forever. From here on out, we will no longer be simply a couple, but parents. A family. Unbelievable.

I can already tell that this journey will teach me more about the character and nature of God than I have ever known. As I contemplate this new life, even now taking shape in amazing ways, through all the fear and doubts and practical complications, one feeling wells up to consume all others... Love. It is such a bizarre realization to know that there is a being, a person, who is as of yet non-existent in tangible form, but who nonetheless will uncontrollably draw forth from you the deepest manifestations of care, concern, and self-sacrifice. This person hasn't even set foot in the world yet, but I already know that I love them in such a way that I cannot help but give everything for them.

As powerless as a man hurtled downstream by a rushing river current, I know that this end is unavoidable. Their very act of being compels my very essence to love them at a level deeper than I have ever felt. It's not even really a choice; it is the very character, the ontological essence, of our ever-developing relationship itself. I Already worry for this child; about their health and happiness and about the choices they will make in life. I worry about providing for them; giving them all that I can to enable them unto fullest life. I concern myself even with their relationship with God, their creator. What holy fear it is to bring a free-willed being into the world!

And I wonder, in all of this, if this is not the manner in which God relates to us. Setting out in the act of creation, out of the overflow of love within Godself, did God know that, as the Father, he could not help but love that which he was about to bring into existence? Did he know that, compelled by the rushing river of his own nature and essence, he would unavoidably be driven to give all of Himself in love for these people? Did he know, at the foundation of creation, that he was going to die in order that we might have life?

I believe he did. God knew, because God knows what love is. God IS love. In a manner deeper than we will ever know, God understands the way in which love compels; that to embrace love is to give oneself, even unto death. I imagine that it wasn't even really a choice; at least not in the manner that we understand choice... It is who God IS; a lover, and the Father, and hence, the Savior. Breathtaking.

Reflection #3: Freedom, Evil and Suffering

I will defer somewhat in my discussion of freedom to that which I have just previously mentioned regarding the Fall. Namely, that true freedom is not, as we most often and readily believe, the freedom of contrary choice, but rather the freedom to be and do all that God has created his people to be and do. This is the freedom of God himself, in whose image we have been crafted; not the freedom of capriciousness or mere lack of restraint, but the freedom of God to be fully and completely God; as he is, according to His own divine nature. In the Garden, we were created in the image of Christ himself with the freedom to be fully, completely and profoundly human. Created in the image of, and for relationship with, God, with all the infinite potential of creation and the depths of our own essence laid out before us, ‘God created… and it was good.’ As such, we understand that evil was, and is, in no way necessary. Evil is essentially a void, an absence, an emptiness, and nothing that God created good required the ‘existence’ of evil in order to be, genuinely, good. It is through this lens that we much approach the reality of evil and suffering.

First, we must come to understand that evil, most plainly, is simply that which ought not be. God created all that ‘ought’ to be in accordance with his divine love and purposes. Evil is not a created reality within God’s good intention, but the twisting and degradation of that good. As such, evil has no justification. It has no good end. God cries out along with those who suffer under evil that things simply ought not to be this way. In fact, that is evil’s very definition.

Along with this, we may further come to understand that evil cannot be explained; it essentially makes no sense. To attempt to provide an explanation for evil is to lend it a rationality which it does not possess. To explain evil is to rationalize it, and to rationalize it is to justify it. And evil, as we have just discussed, is essentially and necessarily without justification. It simply shouldn’t be.

Thirdly, in the sovereignty and power of God, when we hand to him ‘that which ought not be’, he is yet able to overcome that evil and put things to rights. God does not justify or ‘turn evil into’ good. God’s response to evil is not justification or explanation, but ACTION; to UNDO that evil. This is, essentially, why evil has no future, because God, in overcoming evil, is able to make it do ‘forced labor’; to undo itself. Sin and evil are essentially that which ought not be and, in the end, they WILL NOT be.

Concurrently, we come to understand that evil is in no way necessary. In rejection of a dualistic paradigm, Christian teaching affirms that evil has no necessary place, even for the operation of free will. As expounded upon in depth earlier, the essence of genuine freedom is not contrary choice, but rather the freedom to be fully and truly that which we have been created to be. Embracing a wrong perception of freedom leads us, in fact to bondage and death.

Fifthly, Evil is essentially parasitic. God alone is the source of existence, and God wills that evil not exist. Therefore, evil has no power to exist but to leach off of, and twist the good. The enemy has been deemed the ‘Father of lies’ for good reason. For a lie has no power; no substance, no reality apart from its impersonation of truth. A lie, perceived as a lie, has no power whatsoever. Once it is revealed for what it is, all of its influence is lost. If a lie cannot be treated with the reality of a truth, it has no power, no effect, and no future. As such, the choice between good and evil is not the choice between two realities, but the choice between a reality and a non-reality. As we choose to participate in evil, we lend it a reality and an existence that it otherwise does not have. In our lives, we make the lie ‘real’ by living as if it were true; as if it WERE, when it is essentially NOT. In contrast, true freedom always leads to freedom. The choice of evil is not freedom, but the choice to throw away our freedom. This is the genuinely heartbreaking tragedy of the Garden; we have sold our eternal inheritance and all the richness of God for NOTHINGNESS.

Lastly, God has not promised that we will not suffer, but that he will make all of our sufferings to be like that of Christ; namely, overcome unto redemption. Scripture tells us that, in the end, every tear will be wiped away. Until then, in the face of evil and suffering we are enabled unto Godly grief and engagement over those things in our world which simply ‘ought not be’, in the fullness of Hope that God, in Christ and in his redemption and sanctification of his people, is actively bringing about the day when these things WILL NOT be; all of creation restored into the fullness of God’s glorious intent. Until that day, those people redeemed and brought into transforming relationship with God through Christ embody this victory by living lives of hope, healing and genuine freedom in the midst of suffering and bondage as a witness to the greater reality over God’s victory over evil in and through Christ, praying as Jesus taught us, ‘Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ Come, Lord Jesus.

Reflection #2: Freedom and the Fall

“In the beginning God created… and it was good… it was good… So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female He created them… it was very good.’ – Gen.1

Human beings, we are told, were created by God, in the image of God. And it was very good. What, however, does this image consist of? Intelligence? Morality? Reason? In Colossians, the Apostle Paul describes Christ as the image of God, IN whom we have been created and TO whom we are being conformed completely through the work of redemption and sanctification. (Hughes) As such, we may surmise, then, that the true image of God, and therefore the foundational essence of humanity, is Christoformity. The intent of God in the creation of humanity was that we, created as the image of that essential humanity present in Godself and embodied by Christ, would, in the natural expression of that essential image, be bound in loving relationship with God; even as Jesus, the Son, is in loving relationship with the Father through the Spirit. ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you…’. God’s creation of mankind was, in essence, an invitation for humanity to participate in the mystery of the divine relationship itself; out of the overflow of that relationship, God created in order that He might share that profound, powerful and life-giving love with us. It is through the lens of this purpose for being that we may accurately know that we are created in the image of God; for, like God himself, we were created for relationship with God.

In the light of this inexplicable holy generosity that compelled creation, we come to realize that it is only through the sovereign will and love of God that such an interaction would ever be possible. For what can the not-yet-created, that which is yet nothing, do to participate in the work or will of the eternal, uniquely pre-existent Creator? That we exist at all hangs upon the will and pleasure of the sovereign God, creator and sustainer, who by his grace holds us above the nothingness from whence we came.

What, then, do we speak of when we speak of the Fall?

Most simply put, Man, created in the image of - for relationship with - God, opted for nothingness and bondage rather than the freedom for which we were created and, as such, denied ourselves that essential relationship upon which our very life and existence hangs. When Calvin speaks of total depravity, he is drawing our attention to the fact that the very image of God in which we have been created – our essential bond and source – has been so corrupted by sin; our rebellion and denial, that who we are presently is totally unrecognizable in comparison to that which we have been created to be. We were created for relationship, and we denied that relationship; this is the essence of the Fall.

But, we may ask, isn’t choice the essence of freedom? If this relationship with God were to be genuine and real, did humanity not need the option of denying it? Is not free will contingent upon this? And if so, can we be judged for simply exercising that freedom in the manner we saw fit?

While this logic rings true for us, this fact exposes the reality that we have thoroughly lost sight of our own essence, having handed it over in exchange for a lie and a world of deception. For the chief lie of the enemy of our souls is that real freedom; that ideal which we hold so dearly, consists merely of CONTRARY choice. The lie that we bought in the Garden was that unless we have the ability to choose AGAINST something (namely, God), then we aren’t genuinely free. In opting for this, the devil’s definition of freedom, what we thought we were purchasing was autonomy and independence, but this freedom was not freedom at all; but merely freedom from existence; from the source of life. This ‘freedom’ was death. It was, and is, bondage. To this day, however, we fail to acknowledge this; seeking to approach God through the same old farce of a definition of freedom. The enemy is laughing.

For the essence of real freedom was not to choose against something; it did not need a ‘No’ in order to be genuine. Rather, the freedom of the Garden, and the freedom of that relationship with God for which we have been created, is the freedom of choosing from among the infinite ‘Yes’s’, the infinite possibilities available within the character and essence of God’s divine, overflowing love and creation. We were created with nothing but potential before us; upheld and spurred on in the sovereign love and will, all of creation waiting to be grown, developed, shaped into the fullness of all that it could be. We opted, rather, for nothingness; and all of creation groans. Because of God’s sovereignty, however, when we hand him evil and nothingness, he knows what to do with it. He has created from nothingness before. The story of our redemption is that of this sovereign, loving God, condescending to our fallenness, in order to take our nothingness, and bring about that fullness of his original intent; for our salvation and life, and for his glory and infinite joy that we might find ourselves in right relationship with Him once again.

Reflection #1: The Triune God

‘We believe in one God, the Father, almighty, maker of heaven and Earth….’

With this beginning, the Nicene Creed immediately sets Christian teaching apart from an entire world of faith systems; especially in the context of the Roman world from which this new movement was birthed. ‘One God’; in the face of the Roman/Greek/Pagan conception of a polytheistic universe in which a pantheon of gods sought to struggle and vie with one another for power, sexual dominion, and other various forms of conquest, Christian teaching silences this chaos entirely. There is no cosmic competition; no eternal battle for influence in which human beings become merely pawns and casualties. There is but ONE God, one source, one almighty Father and the impetus for all that is. This God is beyond competition; without equal, wholly free and uniquely pre-existent.

‘And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God…’

This oneness of God, however, is not aloneness. From the outset of God’s revelation of himself in scripture, we find that this one pre-existent God is not alone in himself. Rather, within one nature and one unity, we find community. Despite the mystery of this we recognize that, in a God such as the God of scripture, revealed to us in His very essence as Love, it follows that this God in his unique pre-existence would not be essentially ALONE, but necessarily in RELATIONSHIP. As this God is ONE, however, without peer or equal, with whom would this essential relationship have been before the foundations of time and space itself but with Himself? As such, the foundations of our understanding of the Trinity are laid. Who then, is this Jesus; the Son of God?

‘Begotten from the Father before all ages… God from God… not made… of one substance with the Father, through whom all things came into existence…’

Jesus is the one who takes us to the Father, and sends us the Spirit. He is the one sent by the Father, conceived by the Spirit, and born of Mary among us. Jesus is the son of the Father, who lives under and in the power of the Spirit. He is the one doing the work of the Father, by the power and enabling of the Holy Spirit. To deal with Jesus is to deal with both Father and Spirit.

The Son, co-inherent and in-existent with the Father and the Spirit, is one with them, although distinct from them. The Son is not created, but eternally begotten and coeternal. The Son receives Sonship, gives Fathership, and exudes Spirit. A variety of heresies have sprung forth from a misunderstanding of this relationship. Most notably Arianism, which proposed that Christ was not one with the Father and Spirit, but rather, created. Based on an anthropomorphization of sonship, Arius concluded that there must have been a time when the Son was not, therefore the Son could not be co-eternal with the Father, and hence the Son could not be one with the Father, but must be something essentially other. From the limitations of language, it may be understandable how Arius would come to this errant conclusion. However, to follow this conclusion to it’s natural end proves disastrous. For if Jesus is not one with the Father, then God Himself is not our savior, as scripture indicates; he sent someone else. As Christ alone is our essential hermeneutic and source of direct revelation of God’s character, if Jesus is not one with the Father, then we actually have no direct revelation through which to be in relationship with God. If this is the case, that, in looking at Jesus, we are not actually finding the revelation of God himself, then our whole discussion; our entire foundation for knowledge and belief is undermined. What begins as is a misinterpretation of language ends in our inability to know God. As such, the teaching of the Church affirms the oneness of the Son with the Father and the Spirit, as revealed by the witness of scripture and by the witness of Christ himself.

‘And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Life-giver, who proceeds from the Father… and the Son…’

The third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit of God, proceeds from the Father and the Son as the very embodiment of their relationship with each other; the personified relational empowering and enabling within Godself. As such, though it has been a matter of some debate, the center and unity of the Trinity is not found in any one person of the Trinity, which would thus undermine the unity therein, but rather the unity of God IS the trinity. Such was the clarification of Athanasius and others regarding this point.

To lose sight of the unity within the Trinity is to fall into tri-theism; perceiving that there is not one God, but three, essentially throwing ourselves back into pagan pluralism. Everything that God does, He does as one God (ie. The Father creates in the Son, by the power of the Spirit); the works of God are essentially undivided.

To lose sight of the distinctions within the Trinity is to fall into Modalism: the perception that God is actually all one ‘stuff’ only revealed in three distinct expressions. Christian teaching maintains that God is both eternally and essentially tri-personal. These distinctions, within one nature, are that of RELATIONSHIP. The Father begets; giving sonship and receiving fathership. The Son is begotten; receiving sonship and giving fathership. The Spirit proceeds; from both the Father and the Son. These distinctions are not merely a matter of names or appearance, but essential and personal.

To lose sight of the equality within the Trinity is to fall into subordination, as we have already seen and discussed in the missteps of Arianism; to conceive of the Son or the Spirit as something less than God. All of these relationships, though complex and mysterious, are absolutely vital to perceive correctly. For, it is no less than the very essence of revelation of, and genuine relationship with, God that is on the line should we allow ourselves to embrace error. The stakes are far too high. May God guide us in all wisdom.

Preliminary Thoughts: Open Theism

“ Such an impotent view of God understandably strikes fear, if not revulsion, in the hearts and minds of many believers who hear it. In reality, I will now argue, the charge could hardly be further from the truth. I will contend that if we truly believe God is omniscient, possessing unlimited intelligence and knowledge, there is no basis for concluding he is less "in control" if he knows the future partly as a realm of possibilities than he is if he knows the future exclusively as a realm of eternally settled facts. In fact, I shall argue that any view of God which thinks God gains any significant providential advantage simply by virtue of knowing the future exclusively as a realm of eternally settled facts (rather than as partly comprised of possibilities thereby concedes that it has a limited view of God. More specifically, ironic as it sounds, I shall argue that this charge is premised on a denial of God's omniscience.” - G. Boyd

To respond simply to this initial argument of one of Greg Boyd's extensive treatises on 'Open Theism'; it seems to me that Boyd here is engaging the wrong question entirely. This isn’t an issue of figuring out what would make God ‘most providential’; and building a theology to fit that human ideal. It is about coming to understand God as He ACTUALLY IS, as he has freely revealed himself to us, and allowing that God to shape our thinking, not vice versa. This is the God who could describe himself no better than ‘I AM’, the God who ‘WAS and IS and IS TO COME’; the ‘creator AND SUSTAINER’. The essence of this revealed God is nothing short of the act of BEING itself. God is not a static, esoteric reality; God is an EVENT, an UNFOLDING. God is LIFE itself. And apart from this ESSENTIAL life from which all else that is living derives their CONTINGENT life, there is nothing.

‘I AM’; apart from He who is, nothing is. Even the continued existence of the enemy of our souls is contingent upon the sovereign will and pleasure of God. God, we are told, created out of nothing. As such, all that exists is held by the very will of God over that chasm of nothingness from whence it came. If God were to will that the enemy did not exist, he would simply cease to exist. Period. He is utterly dependent on He from whom he would seek to rebel. This is why he is a defeated enemy, his only recourse in the hardened bitterness of his own rebellion but to lead God’s beloved creatures to ‘exchange the truth of God for a lie’; namely that lie that there is ANYTHING of substance apart from God, and that true freedom is NOT that blessed freedom of infinite possibility and potential that God placed before mankind in the Garden, but only the freedom of contrary choice.

For the enemy, if we can’t choose AGAINST something (namely, God), then we aren’t really free. This is the lie from the pit of Hell itself. Taken to it’s fullest expression, it would have us revile the ‘Tyranny’ of a God who has denied us freedom because he did not ask us whether or not we would like to exist! (this is, in essence the assumption underlying ‘The Great Divorce’)
We come to realize that God then, as the source and sustenance of all that IS; past, present, and future; the one in whom we ‘LIVE and MOVE and HAVE OUR BEING’, is fully aware of ALL that he is actively engaged in sustaining. We are told that the hairs on our head are numbered, that God knows every sparrow that falls to the ground. The contents of our very hearts are transparent to this God. He knows all of this, because apart from his upholding, sustaining will, none of it would BE at all. Even to that which is now opposed to him; that which breaks His heart, he continues to lend existence. This is the profundity of the divine LOVE.

To the question of open theism, then, we may now turn. Open theism would propose that, despite the fact that the future, in all its details and intricacies, has NO EXISTENCE at all apart from the conscious decision of God to actively create and sustain it, God is somehow UNAWARE of the full nature of that which he is creating and sustaining. Either, it seems, God is somehow UNABLE (too short sighted or too stupid) to be aware of these things, or He is UNWILLING; purposely covering up something over which he has every ability to be fully aware, but has decided to keep, as it were, from himself. What is the philosophical motivation to propose such a thing? The open theist would answer, because, if God already KNOWS; if our parts are already effectively WRITTEN, then we aren’t truly FREE. If God already knows what we are going to do before we do it, then this all must be one big arbitrary chess match between God and himself, with mankind caught in the middle, unable to do any other than that which has been already decided.

A few points: First, before we start, we must agree that God IS as He IS, and not merely as we would like him to be for the purposes of our own sense of self-importance. Often it feels that open theism largely finds its impetus in a sort of disapproval in thinking of the sovereignty of God operating in such a way that would make me feel like I am not in CONTROL. Simply because we (Americans, especially) don’t like to think that we lack a certain amount of perceived ‘autonomy’ doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

Second, KNOWING and explicitly CAUSING are not the same thing. God’s knowledge is not a static knowledge, it is not a merely factual knowledge; it is a PERSONAL knowledge. God knows EXACTLY what I will do in EVERY situation; not because he causes me to do it, but because he KNOWS ME and he knows the situation in such a profoundly complete way that my course of action is absolutely obvious to him, even when it’s not to ME. We laugh at how predictable small children can be; parents know their children personally at such an essential level that they can ‘predict’ the response of their child in a given situation. I may know that my small niece will always choose chocolate over any other flavor of ice cream, even if she herself doesn’t know that about herself. I know my real friends; I know my wife, in some ways better than they know themselves. My knowing how someone I know will act in a given situation doesn’t mean that I MAKE them do it. I just KNOW them. How much deeper and fuller is God’s knowledge?! Will we now sit back and claim that, because we are KNOWN completely, we are therefore not completely free? God is unable to be anything other than God, namely, the God who IS and who KNOWS; we are both free and known, and that is not a contradiction in terms.

Thirdly, what essentially lies behind ‘Freewill Theism’ is a broken and corrupted understanding of free will. Essentially, we have bought the lies of the enemy hook, line and sinker. We fully believe that the only real freedom is the freedom of the contrary. If we cannot choose AGAINST, than we believe that we have no real choice at all. In reality, the ‘free will’ that God invested mankind with as an imprint of his own freedom was that freedom to fully BE; to live fully into the infinite potential of the infinite ‘yes’s’ that God had placed before us. ‘But’ the enemy says, ‘this tyrant God didn’t ASK YOU if you wanted THOSE options… He’s just spoon-feeding you. That isn’t FREEDOM.’ The deistic concept of the battle between good and evil is an essentially inaccurate paradigm for the Garden. We like to picture mankind in a neutral state, in an open field; good to the one side, and evil to the other. If we didn’t have that choice, we say, we wouldn’t be free. Mankind was not, however, in an open field. We were, in fact, standing at the edge of a precipice; the fullness of everything which God had created us for stretching out before us, and nothingness - inhumanity, death, non-existence - behind us. ‘Of ALL of the trees you may eat…’ The enemy convinced mankind that they could, in fact, co-opt the essence of God himself, if only they might loose themselves from that which God had given them without asking their permission; namely, Life. Of course, we didn’t realize that was the choice before us; all we saw was AUTONOMY. REAL freedom. And so we fell. Into death. Into inhumanity. It was only God’s unsearchable love that broke this fall from it’s inevitable end. Because he knew, of course. He knew we’d walk away, and he knew we’d break his heart, and he knew that there would be nothing that we could do about it for ourselves, and he knew that he would have to pay the price for our inevitable transgression. And he went ahead with this whole hair-brained scheme anyway because he knew that, in the end, when he’d done for us that which we could not do for ourselves and finally enabled us to take hold of all that which he’d created us for in order that we might participate in his sovereign, holy glory, it will have been worth it. Every tear wiped away, every transgression forgiven. He knew, so he was able to confidently bear our burdens. He knows, so he is able to journey with us even today; because he already sees us for what we WILL be, and he knows the journey that will take us there.

In failing to grasp this, freewill theism is simply built open the same, essential, prideful lies of Hell that mankind has dined upon since almost the beginning of time. That unless my will is OTHER than God’s will, it isn’t really FREE will. True freedom, however, is quite different. It is when my will finds itself WITHIN God’s perfect, sovereign, all-knowing will that I am truly free to be all that my creator has intended me to be. To take a racecar into a mud pit isn’t freedom; it’s foolishness. It wasn’t built for that. The enemy has made a good living, however, on making us believe that freedom and foolishness are the same thing. May God help us.

fade.

Step outside into the sun, my love
Let it fall upon your shoulders,
Warm you through your clothes
See, these new shoots of grass are breaking through
In fact, it must be summer somewhere just south of here.

You won't; you won't ever leave my side.
'Cause I won't; I won't ever let your hands slip through my fingers

This is the way we die - just slowly fade
Behind a wrinkled face; from the dust I came
This is the way we walk into the twilights gleam
The shadows grow long, and you're holding me.

Evening comes so quietly, and soon
Wraps all in sunlight fading; inescapable
Sit beside me in the porch light's glow.
My love, we'll fade together; embrace the cool unknown.

so i lay me down...

Sleep, like lovers do.
Sleep, like lovers do.
This life-giving grave; I lay myself down for you.
Sleep, like lovers do.

So much better now than where I used to be.
My heart's been bought and sold before; a pound of flesh for the lobbyists
and all those politicians - political loves - promising a life to me
they could never give at all.

So I lay me down
to die so that i might come alive somehow.
All that I have, I give;
these pieces, that I might be made whole again.

Sleep, like lovers do.
Sleep, like lovers do.
This life-giving grave; I lay myself down for you.
Sleep, like lovers do.

ashes and angels

Strike the match and watch it burn;
this sulfurous plume, my nostrils turn.
The flame, the heat, the light
Where once a bridge, now just a funeral pyre.

Lights the way back home.
Bars the way back home.
These ashes won't hold me from the cold dark waters below.

If I knew another way back to the place where I've come from I'd go.
But this path still smolders and the current's torrid in this brave new world.
My strength escapes, evaporates; and my broken soul, it bleeds
And my aching ears, they hear angel choirs; distant songs of wholeness sing.

Lights the way back home.
Bars the way back home.
These ashes won't hold me from the cold dark waters below.

Remembering my father's house and those distant fields of innocence
There were lilac summers; the sickly sweetness of the nighttime air.
In spring, we'd walk - In winter, we'd warm by his hearth; a glowing fire within.
Now I curse a match, carelessly tossed, that keeps me from going back again.

Lights the way back home.
Bars the way back home.
These ashes won't hold me from the cold dark waters below.

Feb. 5th

It's 'Super Tuesday' today. (it's a big election thing) You ought to know about it. It's actually kind of a big deal. We should probably care.

CNN

ps. just for fun.

So...

So, I know I don't post all that often... and when I do, entries tend to be 500% longer than the average, polite, blog attention span.

I guess I'm just not much good at this.

But, most of what ends up here is the product of wrestling with scripture and life through the lens of my ongoing education; in both the academic and practical - generally things that go from a journal to a teaching or paper, and then end up here for whoever has the patience or desire.

For what it's worth.

-CB

'The Sermon' - part 2: Law. Anger. Lust.

:: So.. thinking through the 'Sermon on the Mount'. As mentioned in a previous post, Jesus introduces this well-known collection of teachings with a series of statements meant to both draw us in and illustrate the condition of heart that will bring about the purposes of God in us: blessed, he says, are the spiritually bankrupt, the grieving, the cheek-turners, the hungry and thirsty, the pure in heart and the peacemakers…

This is, Jesus says, what it is to be salt and light. People, who are aware of their spiritual emptiness, aware of their need for healing and wholeness, asking God to fill them, purify them, grow in them the depths of his character and holiness, that we might pour ourselves out as healers and peacemakers defined by the forgiveness and longsuffering gentleness of Christ himself. It is in this way that a world desperately seeking meaning and completion will finally be able to see the face of hope, and come to him.

Which, taken to heart, gives us an amazing picture of our world and what it is to engage it in all its’ beauty and brokenness. But… is this new? And, perhaps more importantly, is this message of Jesus a rejection of the Judaism from which it springs; the history, the prophecy and the law, or is it somehow coherent or embracing of that foundational message and that covenant?

:: Mt. 5:17-20

‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets…’

With this statement, Jesus places all that he is and all that he will say firmly within the flow of redemptive history as it would have been understood by these Jewish listeners; this message of God and Kingdom that he brings is not a matter of novelty, but of incarnation… ‘I have come to fulfill them…’ – Jesus offers himself as the incarnate expression of this plot that has been unfolding since the very entrance of sin into the world.

Perhaps we might also look at Jesus’ ‘fulfillment’ of the law in an interpretive light: more than just an outflow of the past or a result of it, could it be perhaps that Jesus is claiming that he himself is the lens through which we find the means to properly interpret and apply all that came before him? Either way… this is a deeply significant statement that ties Jesus to the ongoing unfolding of redemptive history.

v. 18-19

‘…heaven and earth pass away… the law will not pass away’ – Jesus’ use of the same word here (translated ‘to pass away’), joining these two thoughts together; expressing that, in Jesus’ view, the Law (Jewish covenant) is not merely some foreign moral code imposed upon creation, but it is rather an expression of the very heartbeat; the very character of creation itself... Which is fascinating.

In this, we begin to understand that the Law (much like the Sermon on the Mount) was not given strictly or primarily to mandate behavior… but to express something about the nature and character of God. The Law will not pass away… because it is a description of that which is essential and eternal… and until such a time as God is again fully revealed, the Law shall remain.

It is in THIS sense that Jesus fulfills the law: as the incarnate expression of the heart, nature and person of God.

v. 20 ‘ Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees…’

On the surface, this is a ridiculous statement. For the Jews of Jesus' day, these people WERE the righteous; the spiritual… the benchmark of practical faith. To imply, then, that these people, for all their lives’ devotion to getting it right, don’t make the cut, is an outstanding statement. WHO, then, has any hope of entering the kingdom?

How could one possibly achieve this ‘greater’ righteousness? What more could God possibly demand of a person then this? Because, should one try, it seems that it would quickly become obvious that we can’t, actually, do it… at least not in our own strength.

Maybe this is exactly the point?

What if the Law, and now Jesus, was never so much meant as a ‘color by numbers’ moral code, but rather a glimpse into the character of God, that we might come to realize our own brokenness, come to face our own inability to do anything about it, and so cast ourselves his grace and mercy in light of how far we fall short? (blessed are the poor in spirit… the spiritually bankrupt)

v.21-26 – Murder/Anger

Jesus now continues to expound upon this point: ‘… you shall not murder’ A decent moral code to live by… But, Jesus says, It is quite possible that we could live our entire lives having never broken this particular code in practice, while still missing the point… Still falling short of the character of God. Murder is merely an extreme symptom of the disease of brokenness, bitterness and anger that will wrap it’s roots around our souls should we give it the chance…

Your code is alright, Jesus says, but it doesn’t get to the heart of the matter… I’m not interested in behavior modification or treating the symptoms… I want to cure the disease in you. I don’t want merely the absence of outward conflict, I want real reconciliation. (v. 23-26)… It’s as we come face to face with God that we can see our need, and are invited to healing.

So, too in v. 26-30 : Adultery/Lust

‘So… you’ve never given in to the temptation to cheat on your spouse? That’s good. Kudos. But God is actually interested in more than your behavior… He’s interested in your heart.’ (note: this is not an attack on biology, but a commentary on intent. Could be translated ‘looking upon a woman in order to lust after her’… He is not dealing with repressing raw impulse, but addressing the lie that says it doesn’t matter how we incline our heart or what we allow in to our mind, so long as we don’t physically act on it)

Some would protest that Jesus’ teachings here, taken seriously, are simply unreasonable. How can he expect us to so discipline ourselves with respect to urges of this sort which come so naturally from within us as a result of our human condition?

But this is perhaps exactly the point; we ARE helpless to keep our own brokenness at bay… We are helpless to heal our own souls: to address the bitterness, anger and lust that run rampant within us. The best we can ever hope for is to strive for the appearance of righteousness; to put on a good face… to hope to keep the disease from showing symptoms… But all the behavior modification and self control in the world can never make us whole. It can never deal with the problem. It is not through legalism that we will find our way into the kingdom of God, but through grace. Through the forgiveness and healing transformation of God himself through the person of Jesus.

It is for this reason that Jesus, and the law, seeks to bring us face to face with the person and holiness of God; that we might recognize our need, and come to him for salvation.

Maybe you’re realizing that your faith, to this point, has been more about keeping yourself in line; more about good behavior than surrender?

Maybe you’ve got wounds that you carry around; bitterness or anger that you have towards someone who has wronged or hurt you, and you need to let that go, to open yourself up to healing?

Maybe there’s ways you’ve bought into the lie that the things you let into your heart and head aren’t a big deal, so long as you don’t let those things show, and those things you’ve let in and keep in are actually rotting you from the inside out?

Maybe you’re on the fence? Wouldn’t to this point, have described yourself as a follower of Jesus? Maybe you’re realizing that that’s a step you need to take?

Pure in Heart (Mt. 5)

:: Jesus, in his introduction to a collection of teachings commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount, begins with a series of strange sayings… ‘Fortunate are the spiritually bankrupt. Fortunate are those who are wracked by grief. Fortunate are the un-vengeful oppressed, the persecuted…’

In the midst of this unique introduction, he says this: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.’

Which sounds nice… makes sense… More sense than many of the others, anyway. But what does this little statement really even mean? In the Jewish understanding, to see God was synonymous with knowing God… ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will know God.’

But, who are the ‘Pure in Heart’? How does one become pure in heart? How do we reconcile this idea with Paul in Rom. 3; ‘There is no one righteous…’ or ‘for all have sinned’? – Who are these hypothetically Pure-hearted ones? What if I want to see/know God? What hope is there for me? The UNpure? The broken? The beaten up? The ashamed?

In fact, were we to look at it, we would find that the sermon on the mount is absolutely FULL of seemingly impossible demands: ‘Unless you are more righteous then the Pharisees… you will not enter the kingdom of God’ ‘Anger = Murder’ ‘Lust = Adultery’… Now that I think of it, WHO can live up to the standards of this God? I can’t possibly live up to this bar that you have set! What hope do we have but that you are MERCIFUL, and show us GRACE?

It is at this point that I begin to wonder… Maybe this is exactly the point? What if the Law, and now Jesus, was never so much meant as a ‘color by numbers’ moral code, but rather a glimpse into the character of God, that we might come to realize our own brokenness, come to face our own inability to do anything about it, and so cast ourselves his grace and mercy in light of how far we fall short? (blessed are the poor in spirit… the spiritually bankrupt)

In this, I begin to understand Jesus’ statement about the pure in heart… For how might any of us ever hope to be pure in heart, unless it is through the work of God in us?

And why is it that those who are pure in heart will see/KNOW God? Perhaps it is that as we seek to become pure-hearted, we are forced to let God IN? Perhaps it is in that cleaning process that we start to become familiar with the one who is doing the cleaning… Perhaps it is as we allow him to root around inside of us and cast the rubbish to the curb that we actually begin to know his character… on display through his purifying work; those things that he keeps and cleans, and those things that he simply throws away.

Much like the heart and soul of an artist is most poignantly communicated through their art, perhaps it is that the heart and character of God is best experienced through his work in us. Perhaps we grow in knowledge of God through this process of cleansing and transformation because, through it, we are growing more and more LIKE him.

As we explore and wonder at what this process is like… what it gives and what it demands of us, we are forced to come to a startling conclusion: God isn’t interested in being your friend.

Jesus isn’t interested in being your buddy, your acquaintance, or your crush. God isn’t interested in our charming religious flirtation… He isn’t satisfied with a couple Friday nights a month; a nice meal, a couple drinks and a good laugh. No… this God with whom we are dealing is looking for intimacy. God wants to be KNOWN… He wants to hold you close, take you to church, put a ring on you finger, and then get you in bed.

He wants to get into every pore, every wound, into the deepest and darkest and most vulnerable places of our souls… and there forge a connection of love as has changes us from the inside out.

In Luke chapter 9 Jesus asks his disciples; ‘I know what the crowds are saying, but who do YOU say that I am?’

Are we going to do this thing? How serious are you? Do you want to KNOW me, or are you content to just know ABOUT me? Are you in, or are you out?

‘Take up your cross and follow me.’ Because I don’t want you to date me… I need you to die for me; to die WITH me. Will you lay down your life? Surrender your sovereignty? Admit your inability? Let me inside? Because this is the only way you will ever truly know what it is to be alive.

God doesn’t want to be your friend. God is a lover. He isn’t satisfied with SOME of you; he wants it all. This isn’t a business agreement. It’s not a matter of good behavior and reward. This journey is a relationship. This is a marriage, and it is helpful to think of it in that way.

I didn’t marry my wife once. I’m married to her every day. And every morning is a decision about whether I will choose to live in that reality or not. Will I seek to grow in knowledge and love and sacrifice today? Will I die for her? Or not?

Jesus invites us to the altar today. This relationship will demand that we give him ALL of ourselves… our flaws, ambitions and dreams… But he has already given us all of himself. And that is enough. That is life itself, if we could only open our hands to receive it.

'The Sermon': Matthew 5:1-16

:The Sermon on the Mount. Even more brilliant than you think.

This collection of Jesus' teachings is largely poetic, dramatic and pictorial; as opposed to functioning like a code of law to be approached with a spirit of absolutism, it is in many ways rather painting a picture and calling us into an experience of the character of God. It’s purpose is not to legislatively end the conversation, but to begin it; to invite us into deepest thought and cause us to wrestle with this God whom we are meeting.

The sermon takes the present and the practical and looks at those things through the lens of eternity; it looks backwards, from the culmination of the perfect, unbroken will of God to our present. Because it comes out of this consummated Kingdom perspective, it strikes us as largely heedless of earthly contingencies, radical, and even terrifying in places in its attack on complacency and shallow religiosity.

As we wrestle with these teachings and what they call out in us, we are forced to come to grips with the fact that the sermon, and the Kingdom for that matter, is not really concerned with what is practical or possible in the here and now… they are not so much about expounding upon what WORKS; the sermon is about the way God IS.

This journey Jesus invites us into, then, will be one into the heart and character of God as illuminated by these teachings of Jesus in Matthew 5-7. As we do so, we will find both invitation and challenge as we come face to face with the unlimited goodness and love of God, and begin to understand that it is his desire to grow in us that same love, that we might see heaven and earth brought together.

The Beatitudes

We begin here, with Mt. 5:1-16… probably some of the most familiar verses in scripture; but again, statements whose intent and implications actually go much deeper than most of us have ever cared to wrestle with before…

v.3 ‘Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven’

A fine sounding statement... but what does this even mean? What does it look like to be ‘poor in spirit’? Is that really a good thing? Why are they blessed? Why do THEY get the Kingdom of Heaven?

The Greek translated as ‘poor’ here is an image of the financially destitute (poor, poor as a beggar)… which was helpful for me as I thought about this passage; this idea of spiritual poverty. Why would those in spiritual poverty be considered ‘fortunate’? What advantage might they have over people in different circumstances? Because, if we’re honest, none of us would aspire to be destitute; spiritually or otherwise.

It is as if this passage could read; ‘Blessed are the spiritually bankrupt… because they can’t fool themselves. They understand that they are in a place of need. Other people might be able to tell themselves that they’ve got things pretty well in hand; that they’re decent enough people – morally and spiritually inclined enough – secure enough in their achievements to warrant whatever reward might lie at the end of the rainbow. Not these people. Broke and busted, empty-handed, they know they have a need that they are helpless to provide for themselves… and so, they are ready to receive what I would give them.’

The fact is that every person is in need of this gift of grace; these people, though – the empty and the broken – are just going to be naturally quicker to understand that. While the rest of us might be able to distract ourselves from our need for a little while, these people have nowhere else to go. In this, they are fortunate indeed.

Are you empty? Are you broken? Are you searching? You are not far. You are not alone. Jesus is nearer than you might ever expect.

v.4 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.’

Again, we might ask, how is it that those in mourning could be considered fortunate? Given a choice, we certainly would not aspire to mourn! We would not choose to be consumed by grief.

But much like the sentiment of the previous verse, Jesus finds something in the posture of the grieving that is of deep value. It is as if he is saying, ‘Fortunate are the wounded; those who are at their end in painful circumstances, because they know that real comfort is what they need. They do not have the luxury of the numbing salve of feeling comfortable in their circumstances; They are profoundly aware that they need help and healing. This healing and wholeness that we all need, these people will receive it… because they know their life depends on it.

Are you wounded? Are you hurting? Broken-hearted? Jesus wants to meet you there. Would you let him heal you?

v.5 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’

‘Meekness’ doesn’t really jump out as a highly valued virtue in our society. To us, the word implies ‘mouse-like’, ‘easily pushed around’… ‘quiet’. The word translated as ‘meek’ or ‘gentle’ here is actually defined as, ‘the humble and gentle attitude which expresses itself in patient submissiveness to offense, free from malice and desire for revenge.’

Thinking about this, it starts to read a bit differently… ‘Blessed are the cheek-turners; those who refuse to play by the ‘power-over’ paradigm of this world… who give themselves for the subversive movement that is the kingdom of God even when it looks like just getting beaten up.’

There is nothing mouse-like about this meekness. This is the meekness that is able to stand with hope under suffering… This is the gentleness of civil rights marchers who peacefully faced fire hoses and police dogs to stand for what was right. This is the legacy of Martin Luther King and those who stood with him; the gospel and hope of Jesus, profoundly on display. These people changed the world.

The idea of ‘inheriting the earth/land’ that we see here is also a profound idea, harkening deep within Jewish history: The covenant with Abraham, that his decendents would be given a land of their own as an inheritance, the journey of the exodus from slavery to the ‘promised land’… again themes adopted by the civil rights movement…

Using this language implies that it is through those who willingly shoulder suffering for the good of their world that Gods promises and purposes will be fulfilled… it is through these suffering servants, ultimately embodied by Jesus himself, that redemptive history will move forward.

Will we be these people? Will we lay our lives down for the sake of our world? What might this look like?

v.6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.’

The God of scripture is a God who longs to see his people filled, satisfied, made whole. It is what we have been created for; that, connected to our source, we would want for nothing.

To see his purposes accomplished in the world, it is important that we grasp, however, the nature of this filling. When God fills a person, he does not fill them to the brim… He fills us to overflowing. Because his blessing is not for us alone. (Abraham) This brings to mind for me the interaction between Jesus and a woman he met at a well one afternoon… a woman who was spiritually thirsty, and who Jesus offered to fill. He warned her, however, that the water he gives does not merely fill a person, but becomes within them a spring; welling up to eternal life.

God pours into us in such a manner such that we are not merely satisfied, but overflowing.

Are there ways in which we have resisted overflowing? If we’re honest, might we confess that we operate as if this blessing is intended for us alone?

v.7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.’

Reminds me of the Lords prayer; ‘Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.’

Do we take the time to wrestle with the connection between our ability to receive forgiveness and mercy and our ability to give those things? The implication of scripture, here and in other places, is that unforgiving and unmerciful people cannot receive forgiveness or mercy. Why? Will God refuse it, or will they simply find themselves unable to accept it?

Are there people in our lives that we have not forgiven? Would we ask God to help us let go of our bitterness toward those people so that we might take hold of his mercy toward us?

v. 8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’

In scriptural tradition, to see God is to KNOW God. That said, this is all well and good… but how does one go about becoming ‘pure in heart’?

It is only through the work of God that we are even able to be pure in heart. Perhaps, then, it is in the midst of this cleansing process that we become intimately familiar with God himself; as we allow him to root around and cast out the rubbish to the curb, we begin to know his character as it is on display in and through his purifying work.

Much like the heart and soul of an artist is most poignantly communicated through their art, perhaps the heart and character of God is best experienced through his work in us. Our knowledge of him grows as we allow ourselves to be shaped more and more into the likeness of him who we are seeking to know.

At some level, there is only so much we can know about God without surrendering to him. Because to try and know him while denying him access to our lives is like trying to appreciate the work of Picasso without ever looking at a painting. The encyclopedia doesn’t do him justice. God needs to be experienced to be known.

God isn’t interested in just grabbing coffee with us… Flirting from a safe distance. He wants to be intimate; to work within us, to get into every pore, every thought, every hope, clean us out so that he might connect with us and shape us at the level of our souls.

Are there ways in which we are avoiding intimacy with God? Keeping him at a distance? Will we accept his invitation to surrender, cleaning and relationship?

v.9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’

The term ‘peacemaker’ here was commonly used to refer to kings who established peace. In this light, it is important to note that this is not a matter of conflict avoidance… To be a peacemaker in this sense is to enter a conflict and engage it. To wage peace. Militant Love.

We find here a picture of Christ himself on the cross; interceding with God on behalf of a humanity which found itself bankrupt in its conflict with their creator. He spreads his arms, enters the fray, and draws heaven and earth together again.

He then calls us to become ambassadors of Shalom… To take up our cross and follow him; to be those in the world who seek out conflict and brokenness so that we might bring his healing to bear – out of the overflow of that which he has done for and within us.

This task is not an easy one, nor without its inherent risks, for we find this mandate followed by v. 10-12:

To step into a conflict is to risk getting beaten up. You’ll probably get shot at. Again, the champions of civil rights here in the U.S. know this well… To be a peacemaker often does not feel very peaceful.

We find here a significant departure between Christianity and many world religions, like Buddhism, which teach transcendence – elevating oneself above the brokenness and conflict of our world. Jesus, in contrast, calls those who follow him into radical, sacrificial, even painful engagement with all the ways our world is messed up… to embrace, enter, and bring healing to those difficult places as an expression of the character of this God with whom we are dealing.

It is in this spirit that Jesus closes this section of teaching with v. 13-16

:: This is what it is to be salt and light. People, who are aware of their spiritual emptiness, aware of their need for healing and wholeness, asking God to fill them, purify them, grow in them the depths of his character and holiness, that we might pour ourselves out as healers and peacemakers defined by the forgiveness and long suffering gentleness of Christ himself. It is in this way that a world desperately seeking meaning and completion will finally be able to see the face of hope, and come to him.