It All Comes Back to Jesus

I was reminded this morning of the VBS theme from a few years ago. All I remember was something about a boomerang express, a kangaroo, and the fact that it all comes back to Jesus.

I also remembered this quote from Christopher J.H. Wright:

“Ultimately all that will be there in the new, redeemed creation will be there  because of the cross.  And conversely, all that will not be there (suffering, tears, sin, Satan, sickness, oppression, corruption, decay and death) will not be there because they will have been defeated and destroyed by the cross.  That is the length, breadth, height and depth of God’s idea of redemption.  It is exceedingly good news.  It is the font of all our mission.

So it is my passionate conviction that holistic mission must have a holistic theology of the cross.  That includes the conviction that the cross must be as a central to our social engagement as it is to our evangelism.  There is no other power, no other resource, no other name through which we can offer the whole Gospel to the whole person and to the whole world than Jesus Christ crucified and risen.”  (Christopher J.H. Wright, The Mission of God, pages 315-316)

It really is all about the pre-eminent Christ.

Evil Doesn’t Make Sense

It’s Monday.

We’ve mourned through the weekend the tragedy of Newtown, CT. On Monday people will begin giving solutions. We will offer suggestions for change. We will map out strategies for preventing such actions from happening again. We will continue to ask questions, but on Monday we will begin trying to solve them. Today we will try to make sense of this madness.

And it is with such resolve to make sense of evil that I am reminded of these words from Christopher J.H. Wright:

“God, with his infinite perspective, and for reasons known only to himself, knows that we finite human beings cannot, indeed must not ‘make sense’ of evil.  For the final truth is that evil does not make sense.  ‘Sense’ is part of our rationality that in itself is part of God’s good creation and God’s image in us.  So evil can have no sense, since sense itself is a good thing.”

“Evil has no proper place within creation.  It has no validity, no truth, no integrity.  It does not intrinsically belong to the creation as God originally made it nor will it belong to creation as God will ultimately redeem it.  It cannot and must not be integrated into the universe as a rational, legitimated, justified part of reality.  Evil is not there to be understood, but to be resisted and ultimately expelled.  Evil was and remains an intruder, an alien presence that has made itself almost (but not finally) inextricably ‘at home.’  Evil is beyond our understanding because it is not part of the ultimate reality that God in his perfect wisdom and utter truthfulness intends us to understand.  So God has withheld its secrets from his own revelation and our research.”

“Personally, I have come to accept this as a providentially good thing.  Indeed, as I have wrestled with this thought about evil, it brings a certain degree of relief.  And I think it carries the implication that whenever we are confronted with something utterly and dreadfully evil, appallingly wicked, or just plain tragic, we should resist the temptation that is wrapped up in the cry, ‘Where’s the sense in that?’  It’s not that we get no answer.  We get silence.  And that silence is the answer to our question.  There is no sense.  And that is a good thing too.”

“Can I understand that?  No.  Do I want to understand that?  Probably not, if God has decided it is better that I don’t.  So I am willing to live with the understanding that the God I don’t understand has chosen not to explain the origin of evil, but rather wants to concentrate my attention on what he has done to defeat and destroy it.” (42-43, The God I Don’t Understand)

Wright’s entire book is a great reflection on the tough questions of our faith. It is one of the best books that I have read on the topic. You can buy it today.

Topple They Must

To say that the gods are work of human hands is to prick human hubris and to invite fierce repudiation…For if it is indeed true that the gods we exalt so highly are resplendent products of our creativity, then it is not surprising that we defend them so belligerently.  And in our jealous protectiveness of the gods we created for ourselves, we display a parody of the true jealousy that is the prerogative of the only true God whom we did not create.  We invest so much of ourselves in our gods, spend so much on them and blend our identity and significance with theirs that it simply will not do for us to have them unmasked, mocked or toppled.  And yet, of course, topple they must before the living God.  For that is the destiny of all human effort that is not for the glory of God or offered to be redeemed by him.  (Christopher Wright, The Mission of God, 160 emphasis mine)

Monday’s Ministry Musing: Do We Have a Place for Lament?

…the language of lamented is seriously neglected in the church.  Many Christians seem to feel that somehow it can’t be right to complain to God in the context of corporate worship when we should all feel happy.  There is an implicit pressure to stifle our real feelings because we are urged, by pious merchants of emotional denial, that we ought to have “faith” (as if the moaning psalmists didn’t).  So we end up giving external voice to pretended emotions we do not really feel, while hiding the real emotions we are struggling with deep inside.  Going to worship can become an exercise in pretence and concealment, neither of which can possibly be conducive for a real encounter with God.  So, in reaction to some appalling disaster or tragedy, rather than cry out our true feelings to God, we prefer other ways of responding to it.  --(Christopher J.H. Wright, The God I Don’t Understand, 52)

When you consider that almost half of the Psalms are songs of lament, I think Wright may be on to something.  Is there a place for lament, complaining, questions, longing, etc. in our churches?  Or are these to be stuffed down and dropped off at the door so we can engage in" “worship”? 

Is it possible that the Lord does not want us to leave our baggage at the door but instead to bring it into the sanctuary and offer it up—jaded questions, hopeful discontent, broken longing, indeed every range of emotion—in lament to the Lord of glory? 

Of course this doesn’t mean that we always come with lament.  Sometimes we come with thanksgiving.  Sometimes we come with exuberant joy. Often we come with a mixture of all of these.  But does your church have a place for nearly half of the Psalms?  Or do we only corporately engage in the “happy” ones? 

Review of The Mission of God’s People

A couple years ago I was introduced to the writings of Christopher J.H. Wright.  My first exposure was to a massive book called The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative.  It quickly became one of my favorite books (you can read my review of it here).  In that review I noted that, “I would absolutely love to see a condensed version of this book for those that are more casual readers”. 

I was delighted to see what I thought to be a shorter version: The Mission of God's People .  I was further delighted to receive this book free from Zondervan in exchange for a review.  Much to my surprise I discovered that this is not actually a condensed version of The Mission of God.  It is very similar, and draws from Wrights’ earlier works, but this book is more a follow-up.  As Wright notes:

In this book, I am asking the “so what?” question on behalf of those of us whom this God of the Bible has called into saving and covenant relationship with himself-the church, the people of God from Abraham to the population of the city of God in Revelation.  Who are we and what are we here for?  If the Bible renders to us the grand mission of God through all generations of history, what does it tell us about the mission of God’s people in each generation, including our own?  What is our mission?  (Wright, 17, The Mission of God’s People)

Wright’s goal in this book is to spell out specifically the mission of God’s people.  He begins by explaining that this mission (which is really God’s mission) “requires the whole church to take the whole Gospel to the whole world” (Wright, 26).  What follows is an explanation of what this “whole gospel” entails. 

He begins with the big story and encourages believers to take the whole story to the whole world.  Where he goes next may seem surprising to some.  His third chapter is dedicated to creation care.  Many may read this and think that Wright has a liberal agenda.  He does not.  He has a gospel agenda.  What I appreciate about Wright is that “his gospel” is always centered on the finished work of Jesus Christ.  But “his gospel” is also full-orbed, touching every sphere of life. 

There are still 9 more chapters and about 200 more pages after chapter 3, but they can be summed up easily.  These chapters are a call to proclaim the living God with our life and with our lips.  Wright gives a passionate plea (rooted in the OT) for personal holiness.  He also encourages the verbal proclamation of the good news.  He closes the book by showing the relationship between worship and missions as well as showing the relevance of mission for today. 

Wright is a great author and is always a compelling read.  He is dedicated to Christ and the Scriptures.  What you read flows from a full-orbed, and well thought out biblical theology.  You may not agree with everything Wright says but you will certainly have a good understanding of where he is coming from. 

This is, however, another example of a Wright book that could be very beneficial but is a little redundant in places.  Even though a good read it still would benefit from being shortened by about 80 pages.  I’m still looking for a condensed version of The Mission of God.  Perhaps a condensed version of the two combined would be helpful.  Nonetheless, you will greatly benefit from reading this book. 

There are also a few relevant questions at the end of each chapter.  I am not certain that this would be conducive to a small group, but using this book when getting together with a few fellow believers to discuss missions may be beneficial. 

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

For only 16.49 this book is well worth a pick up.  You can preview a good bit of it at Google Books as well.  It is also worth checking out the 9-Marks review of this book. 

When the Mission of God becomes our heartbeat

In the epilogue to his lengthy but stellar book, The Mission of God, Christopher J.H. Wright posits what happens when we come to see “the mission of God as the very heartbeat of all reality, all creation, all history and all that yet lies ahead of us”:

• We ask, “Where does God fit into the story of my life?” when the real question is where does my little life fit into this great story of God’s mission.
• We want to be driven by a purpose that has been tailored just right for our own individual lives (which is of course infinitely preferable to living aimlessly), when we should be seeing the purpose of all life, including our own, wrapped up in the great mission of God for the whole of creation.
• We talk about the problems of “applying the Bible to our lives,” which often means modifying the Bible somewhat adjectivally to fit into the assumed “reality” of the life we live “in the real world.”  What would it mean to apply our lives to the Bible instead, assuming the Bible to be the reality—the real story—to which we are called to conform ourselves.
• We wrestle with the question of how we can “make the gospel relevant to the world” (again, at least that is clearly preferable to treating it as irrelevant).  But in this Story, God is about the business of transforming the world to fit the shape of the gospel.
• We wonder whether and how the care of creation, for example, might fit into our concept and practice of mission, when this Story challenges us to ask whether our lives, lived on God’s earth and under God’s gaze, are aligned with, or horrendously misaligned with, God’s mission that stretches from creation to cosmic transformation and the arrival of a new heaven and new earth. 
• We argue about what can legitimately be included in the mission God expects from the church, when we should ask what kind of church God expects for his mission in all its comprehensive fullness. 
• I may wonder what kind of mission God has for me, when I should ask what kind of me God wants for his mission.

I hope you read through and thought about all of those.  If you just skimmed through make sure you at least read the last two. 

I also would hope that you would consider purchasing this book and plodding through it.  Of all that I have read within the past year this book may have shaped my worldview more than any other that I have read.  It is 28.00 and a little over 500 pages long but it is a very fun read even still.  There is a shorter book (that I have not read) that you can buy for 10.88.

Face Melting Quote on the Effects of the Cross

“Ultimately all that will be there in the new, redeemed creation will be there  because of the cross.  And conversely, all that will not be there (suffering, tears, sin, Satan, sickness, oppression, corruption, decay and death) will not be there because they will have been defeated and destroyed by the cross.  That is the length, breadth, height and depth of God’s idea of redemption.  It is exceedingly good news.  It is the font of all our mission.

So it is my passionate conviction that holistic mission must have a holistic theology of the cross.  That includes the conviction that the cross must be as a central to our social engagement as it is to our evangelism.  There is no other power, no other resource, no other name through which we can offer the whole Gospel to the whole person and to the whole world than Jesus Christ crucified and risen.”  (Christopher J.H. Wright, The Mission of God, pages 315-316)

Wow.  I mean seriously.  Wow.  How dare we center our life and mission around anything but the Cross.

Review of The God I Don’t Understand

Author: Christopher J.H. Wright

Pages: 224 pages

Publisher: Zondervan

Price: 15.59

Genre: Biblical Studies, Theology, General

Quick Summary:

This book is exactly as it is subtitled: Reflections on Tough Questions of Faith. If you are looking for a detailed theodicy then you will not find it here. If you are looking for a manual on engaging in apologetics concerning the problem of evil this book might be helpful but it is not the author’s main purpose. Wright tackles four very difficult subjects: the problem of evil, the Canaanites, the cross, and the end of the world.

I agree with Gary M. Burge’s endorsement of the book when he says, “Wright uses his long experience as a theologian/teacher to skillfully and winsomely bring us through the dead-end solutions we often hear and lead us in fruitful and promising directions”. That is very aptly put. Wright’s purpose is not to put a period on these discussions but to steer them in a proper direction; even if that means at the end of the day we are left shrugging our shoulders.

What I Liked:

I have only recently begun reading the writings of Christopher Wright; what I have read thus far I absolutely love. He informs with scholarly precision but communicates pastorally. This book is honest and transparent. When he is confident about something our author shares it as truth. When he is unsure about something he is refreshingly honest. If every believer engaged in these questions with this type of attitude I am convinced we would go a long way in accurately representing the greatness of God.

I also must mention that, in my opinion, the introduction and last chapter are worth the price of the book.

What I Disliked:

Have you ever had a really pretty picture or beautiful piece of furniture but it has to sit in your closet because you cannot find a place that it rightly fits? This book is like that. It is packaged for the average consumer but deals with issues birthed in academia. It would easily fit in my library next to all of the books dealing with the cross. But then again it would also fit in an eschatology section…or perhaps it would fit in my Old Testament section…maybe it will go in my apologetics section.

Should You Buy It?

That depends. To use a baseball metaphor: are you looking for a solid multi-position player that excels in nothing but is dependable in many or are you looking for a single position guy that knocks the ball out of the park but can’t hit for average? If you need a utility infielder then this book is for you. The truth is I think all of us need to read this book, because it outlines for us how to engage in tough questions of faith. Don’t read this book to answer your questions; rather, read this book to learn how to effectively ask them

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Monday’s Ministry Musing: Preaching on Idolatry

I am convinced that my preaching on idolatry in the past has been missing something.  Let’s consider Psalm 115:1-8:

115:1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!

2 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.

4 Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
5 They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
6 They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
7 They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
8 Those who make them become like them;
so do all who trust in them.

In preaching on idolatry in the past I have mentioned such “idols” that we bow down to in our day: television, computers, iPhone’s, XBox’s, etc.  It seems like a major chasm exist between our obsession with television and God’s warning against bowing to an idol.  (Granted television can be, and is, a major vice).  What I mean is that the harlotry I engage in is far deeper than just sitting before a television screen or making too much out of a human relationship.  My idolatry—and I think the idolatry of those I minister to—goes far deeper. 

I really like the way Christopher Wright explains idolatry in his excellent work, The Mission of God.  There he considers four broad categories in which we often manufacture our gods from: things that entice us, things we fear, things that we trust, things we need.  (p.166-169)  By using such broad categories Wright helps us to see the vast array of things that entice us to idolatry.  And these categories also help me to understand where the fundamental problem for idolatry lies; my own prideful God-rebelling heart. 

The specific idol is not the issue—the wayward heart is.  It does not matter if it is a piece of wood, stone, plastic, or even a fictional image we have yet to make visible.  Therefore, we must not address the idols but rather the prideful God-rebelling heart that is bowing to them.  A heart that engages in idolatry is a heart that is not satisfied in God.  The only reason to engage in idolatry is that your God is not big enough to entice you, He is not big enough to protect you, He is not faithful enough to come through for you, and He is not sufficient enough to provide for all of your needs. 

Again I turn to Christopher Wright, “In worshipping [idols], we give them allegiance, we attribute power and authority, we submit ourselves to something that we have created…Whether addressing the piece of wood he has carved for himself as if it were actually a god or calling out to the invisible state gods…the worshiper is engaged in an exercise in futility.  The one is as much a produce of collective human imagination as the other is the work of individual human hands.  There is no salvation in either” (Wright, 153). 

So, the next time I preach a text dealing with idolatry I will address the wayward heart and let the Holy Spirit convict on the specific idols. 

There is so much more I want to say about this…

Lyric Change??

In his book, The God I Don't Understand , Christopher Wright suggests a change to the lyrics of Stuart Townend’s hymn “In Christ Alone”. Wright suggests that it be modified to capture the greater biblical fullness of meaning (132-133).  The original lyric is:

“…till on that cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied.

Wright suggests that it be changed to:

...till on that cross as Jesus died God's wrath and love were satisfied"

I disagree with Wright’s suggestion.  I understand that his hope is to recover the idea that God’s wrath and God’s love are “intrinsically connected to one another” (130).  However, I think this change to the lyric would be a tad confusing.  Satisfaction is a propitiation term.  In Townend’s lyric is has to do with the permanency of the wrath of God being removed from us by the cross of Christ; it speaks of finality.  To say that love is “satisfied” in the same context that you are speaking of wrath being “satisfied” would either lower what is meant by wrath being fully taken away or lower the eternal nature of love.  Love is eternal and to speak of it as being “satisfied” in the same way that we speak of wrath being “satisfied” is confusing at best. 
What do you think? 

Is Anyone Reading....

....The God I Don't Understand by Christopher Wright?

I am currently reading this book and it is really stretching me. If you are reading it too and you happen to visit this blog let me know what you think. Even if you are not reading that book I want to encourage you to check out these links and consider buying the book:

http://www.koinoniablog.net/the-god-i-dont-understand/
Here is a sample:

"To me it is a profoundly moving thought that the word that introduces our most tormenting questions--"Why...?"--was uttered by Jesus on the very cross that was God's answer to the question that the whole creation poses." (Wright, 21)