the meaning of the parable

May 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Last week I posted this parable.

The question that remains is, “so what does the parable mean?”

Besides the obvious, you assigning meaning as it fits your experience and context, here’s what I have to add:

Up to the very end of its lifecycle, grain and chaff are one and the same thing. The wheat is the inside and the chaff is the outside. In order to separate the useful from the useless, a winnower has to give the grain time to dry, separating the wheat from its sheath, scoop the grain up and toss it high into the air. The wind that blows through the threshing floor, the place chosen to toss wheat because of the wind, blows the dry chaff from the grain into an area where it can be collected. The grain, however, falls back down to the ground where it will be gathered for use.

In Matthew 3, John the Baptist introduces Jesus as the winnower and draws the comparison between the people and the wheat.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Matthew 3:11-12

So many times, I’ve read this as a statement of judgment, like Jesus was some cosmic boogie man separating the bad people from the good people; like a predestination assembly line. But that’s not what’s going on here. This isn’t the sheep and goats (MT 25:31-46), this is a prophetic statement about the way that Jesus is going to transform people who believe in him. This is a commentary about a singular we.

It’s not unheard of for humanity to conform to an agricultural metaphor in Scripture. Look at how Paul describes us in 1 Corinthians:

“For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building [3:9].” God’s field will be harvested and Jesus will have a heavy hand in the work. But this transformative winnowing process is character shaping. This is what Paul refers to saying, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! [2 Cor 5:17]”

This parable begins with the understanding that the chief end of humanity is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. The divine intent of being is to join our lives to mission of Christ on the earth. So, the grain has a choice. For instance:

The moldy grain grew in the field (Ps 24:1), but didn’t know about the field or the farmer, and in turn didn’t want anymore than to stay put never knowing anything beyond the limits of its experience.

The high flying grain knew about the farmer and could see the winnower, but wanted to live life free from the farmer, afraid of the hand of the winnower. This grain was impulsive and lacked wisdom.

The burrowing grain went so far and no more. It bought into the program, but when the time came for transformation, to be gathered by the fork of the winnower, it laid low and thought no one would notice.

The grain that went all the way to the gathering was transformed into something useful. It fulfilled its purpose this side of the reaping and harvesting. Despite the discomfort of change, the grain gave itself over to the winnower and bread maker.

This grain, too, got to the point of transformation, but disagreed on the end result. In the spirit of the first rebellion, this one chose to redefine its being and purpose on its own. It ended up in the pile that could not be used.

To be in the hands of Jesus is to be transformed. It’s not comfortable. It’s not entirely what we have in mind for ourselves, in some cases, but (to borrows a sentiment from Mrs. Beaver) it is good.

Filed Under: contemporary hermeneutic, discipleship, jesus and the kog, matthew Tagged With: , , ,

Winnowing of the Wheat: a parable

April 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

There once was a field.

In the field there was a glorious abundance of wheat stalks nearly ready for harvest. Among the wheat, their was a grain so comfortable in its covering that it refused to dry out for harvest. Holding onto its moisture, it quickly became moldy and viscous, dripping to the ground. There was another grain who saw the winnowers at work and feared the coming harvest. It forced its sheath to open, caught the wind and flew free, high above the field, only to be snatched out the sky by a young crow.

When harvest time came, one grain, after falling to the ground, burrowed deep beneath the crop and was left unharvested. That night, it was gleaned by the poor who followed behind the workers and eaten on the spot.

After the grain was left to dry, it was brought to the threshing floor and the workers began to winnow. As they tossed the harvest into the air, many grains flew free of their chaff, were sold, ground up and became the bread of Princes, Kings, prisoners and paupers. But other grains would not let go of the old dry chaff. They clung to it even as they were thrown into the fire.

Filed Under: contemporary hermeneutic, discipleship, jesus and the kog, matthew Tagged With: , ,

Thursday Justice: You’re Not Just Anything

April 19, 2012 By 1 Comment

Bryan Stevenson is a rock star. Not a real one, but he’s still a rock star. Raised in Alabama, Stevenson is a defense attorney for criminal offenders who are also minors. In this TED talk he shreds injustice like Eddie Van Halen, circa 1982, shredded 16th notes.

Justice is a hot topic today.
Kony 2012 (check out this headline)
Treyvon Martin

“So love of God gets translated into love of vulnerable neighbors. And the doing of Justice is the prophetic invitation to do what needs to be done to enable the poor and the disadvantaged and the neglected to participate in the resources and the wealth of the community.” Walter Brueggemann

Listen to Bryan Stevenson as he embodies that statement.

Today in my Micah Group, a group of preachers trying to imagine justice in the pulpit discussed this video and I walked away looking at justice, as he defines it, through three distinct and important windows.

1. Identity
Stevenson talks about an otherwise disruptive and divisive issue simply and disalarmingly by framing it in identity. Justice is a reflection of who we are. Humanity isn’t an incomplete notion. There aren’t some humans that share in humanity and others that don’t. Humanity is complete when it experiences justice across the spectrums where it is routinely violated.

And how about the observation that a person is never “just” anything? That applies to all of us. We are not “just” the worst thing we’ve ever done. [Rom 5:8; 2 Cor 12:9-12]

2. Equality
My favorite moment in the video had to be where he comes up with that motion to try the 14 year old poor black rural boy as a privileged 72 year old white corporate CEO. Magic power, indeed. The man and the boy belong together. There is no ethical imperative that separates them. Even if one is incarcerated, there is not one without the other. While some variant political strains may argue, the Bible certainly does not [MT 25:31-46].

3. Historically
How logical? He makes two profound connections: The death penalty in the US and the lack thereof in Germany and terrorism in the Middle East and in the south. Brilliant. Injustice has historical roots. So does justice. In fact, the God who predates sin and injustice upholds righteousness before there was even a need. Even so, we read, that “He has told you, human one, what is good and what the Lord requires from you: to do justice, embrace faithful love,and walk humbly with your God [Mic 6:8].”

Sanford, Flordia is not a distant, detached geographic marker where a young black man wearing a hoodie, armed with skittles and iced tea, was murdered. There is a reason to care, to take it personally. Innocence was impuned. That is outrageous. I have a white son…and I have a black son. There is an injustice here that we feel in our home. One of my children can walk outside. The other has to look over his shoulder.

It’s not supposed to be like this!

The Gospel is the contract, the covenant that reaches beyond our superficial divisions to establish a parity within the boundaries of God’s creation. Jew and Gentile become…a priesthood. Male or female become…beloved. Slave or Free become…redeemed. What part of walk humbly is so difficult?

I really appreciate the way that Walter Brueggemann puts it.

No one is “just” anything…except someone that Jesus gave his life for.

Filed Under: gospels, jesus and the kog, justice

The Hunger Games: Night at the End of the Tunnel

March 22, 2012 By 6 Comments

[There will be spoilers in this post, so if you haven't read the book because you have been waiting on the movie...I would like welcome you to Planet Earth: Home of the French Fry."]

The event of the year is upon us: The Hunger Games.

I’m sure you already have your ticket and you are about to sleep outside the movie theater to make sure you get a great seat, which for this movie is an entirely ironic act…as we will soon see. I read The Hunger Games series, by Suzanne Collins, long enough ago to have forgotten more than I remember, so by way of reminder, I bought a new book called The Hunger Games and the Gospel (Kindle) by Christian blogger Julie Clawson. She is thoughtful, thorough and quite gifted at connecting the fiction to history and Gospel. I’ll lean pretty heavily on her work here.

So…The Hunger Games is a phenomenon. It has spent 81 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list. What this says is: There is something about this story that moves us, that attracts us. So far, my self included, I haven’t met anyone who hasn’t read the whole series (three books). What is it that makes Katniss Everdeen such a universal heroine? Why does the story hook us and keep our attention? And what in the world does The Hunger Games have to do with Christianity and the Gospel? To answer that, I could write a book and Clawson has got me beat so, in this first post I will introduce some themes that will shed light on the above questions, but initially I want to describe the context of Panem and connect that to the Roman world that was Collins’ inspiration as well as the world of Jesus and the Church.

Night At The End Of The Tunnel:
In the nineties, there was a shift in fiction. Perhaps it started in the eighties with Batman: The Dark Night, but either way, entertainment moved from fantasy to reality. There was less “Happily Ever After” and more “The Good Guys Die” kind of thing. There was less “Love Boat” and more “Real World.” Even sitcoms like Seinfeld and Friends were comedies that seemed to be drawn right out of the apartment next door. Large audiences became hungry for something more real, something that mirrored the darkness and complexity of life. The Hunger Games falls into this genre. Instead of light, there is night at the end of the tunnel. If you think about it, The Hunger Games doesn’t have a happy ending. Sure the hero lives, but what has changed? The system that created the Hunger Games, the oppressive death machine, The Capitol, remains unaffected — if only temporarily embarrassed. But when empires get their feelings hurt, they choose something to destroy.

This is not a story where a happy ending is the point. On the contrary, The Hunger Games dares to go there. It takes fiction into the realm of non-fiction. Collins’ story escapes from the prison of the page and Katniss holds a mirror up so that we might see things exactly how they are. The world of Panem exists in our world, all around us.

This Is How To Make Peace!
Panem is a world that is supposed to mirror the Roman Empire of the biblical world. This is intentional. If you have made it to the third book, you remember that “Plutarch, the ex-Head Gamemaker turned rebel, explains to Katniss that ‘in the Capitol, all they’ve ever known is Panem et Circenses (Latin for ‘Bread and Circuses‘)’ [†].” In the ancient Roman world, the prime concern was the preservation and survival of the Empire. Rome taxed the empire beyond the city brutally. Not only that, but Rome demanded a high percentage of regional produce. Like the relationship between the Capitol and the Districts, Rome existed like a parasite on the body of the people to whom it promised Pax Romana (“Peace of Rome”).
To make a couple of further connections:

Peace = Plunder or Murder
Roman peace looked like this: A legion of the Roman army would pull up to the gates of your village and the General would approach and say, “Hi everyone, we’re the Roman army! Good news! We have come to bring you peace. On behalf of Caesar, I’m going to give you a choice: you can let us in so that we can take everything from you, your children will become slaves, and your wives will become our wives, and continue to do so for the rest of you existence OR we can just kill you. Totally your choice. No pressure. Peace!” The Roman Army was the “or else” of the Empire…kind of like the Capitol Army.

Bread and Circuses
One of the ways that Caesars kept a firm hand of control was by providing bread and throwing a circus. The Bread and Circus was a means of distracting the people from the pain they felt giving everything to support the Empire, filling their empty bellies with food and their eyes with the games.

A good rule of tyranny, for those of you with high aspirations, is keep people hungry. Hunger controls. If you deprive a man his Lexus, he can drive a BMW. Deprive a home of food and you can’t feed your family. You won’t miss the sound of a Lexus, but you can’t miss the sound of your hungry children. So, when the benevolent Caesar steps in with food, they are not only good, they are a Savior. See how the cycle is created?

Interestingly, in Rome, Tesserae were tokens used to (you guessed it!) trade for food, gain entry into the Gladiator matches, the games, certain inns and some merchants made their own for trade in their own goods. If you visited a god, they had their own tesserae that you would receive just for visiting and could then use to purchase, trade or get what you needed. Pretty cool, huh? No money for bread? Go to the temple, do some idol worship, here have a loaf! This is one of the many things the early church was up against. Remember Jesus, being tempted in the desert? Satan says to the starving Jesus, “since you are God’s Son, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus replies, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, “People won’t live only on bread; (No, they live on whatever the Lord says.) Lk 4:3-4 CEB. Katniss’ resistance is kind of like the second part of this verse, people can go a long way on hope.

The Games in the Roman Empire were like The Hunger Games: real men and women, slaves, fought one another or animals to the death. Criminals, Christians and subversives were tortured, burned, hunted, taunted or merely fought to stay alive in the arena. Jesus was one of those subversives, except he wasn’t thrown into a game, he was thrown onto a cross which became a symbol, like the Mockingjay. A symbol that became hope for the hopeless; for people who knew that the world wasn’t supposed to be like this.

It’s Not Supposed To Be Like This!
Katniss is a hero, not simply because she wins the Games on her own terms, but because she sees the truth behind the Games. She understands the system that turns its back on the humanity of the other districts and willingly and knowingly slaughters the innocent children of those districts. She recognizes the evil of the Capitol and the impossible situation she is in. In spite of this, like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mother Theresa and Joan of Arc, Katniss accepts the responsibility that is thrust upon her (also explored here) because someone has to!

It’s not supposed to be like this! Children are not supposed to be slaughtered for entertainment! Whole societies are not supposed to be held hostage to greater powers. This is the world that Jesus stepped into. He believed the same thing, but unlike Katniss, Jesus had the power to change things forever. Jesus preached the Kingdom of God, a counter-cultural, upside down system where the poor hold the power and the powerful are blind guides. A Kingdom where the slaves are free and the oppressors are enslaved. A Kingdom where God wins and evil is vanquished into nothingness. Jesus described the way it will be, but we aren’t completely there yet…there is always another Capitol.

There is more oppression in the world today than I have ever been aware of: wars, fights, overthrow of governments, chaos, religious fanaticism, child slavery, adult slavery, sweatshops, cheap labor and the list goes on. There is always, it seems a system that hurts someone; someone who oftentimes is making something we need and use all the time. But the problem isn’t always a world away.

On February 26th, seventeen year old Trayvon Martin was shot in his Father’s gated community by an armed neighborhood watchman. Young Trayvon was ‘armed’ with Skittles and Iced Tea and died as a result of a gunman’s alleged fear for his life. Thanks to a law which provides anyone the right to take a life so long as they feel that they are in danger, Martin’s murderer has not even been charged.

It’s not supposed to be like that.

So my question is this: Have you heard about this? Has it broken your heart? Have you justified it behind an ability to shield your feelings about someone you don’t know? Have you ‘moved on’ already?

Chances are you haven’t and that’s great, but it proves a point. We don’t hear people many talking about rebuilding Haiti anymore, or sending support crews to Japan to help in the cleaning and reconstruction after last year’s earthquake and tsunami. We are prone to compassion fatigue, which is to say that we get tired of caring. That’s why The Hunger Games exist. Like in ancient Rome, people would rather be fed and entertained than take the high road to care for, to fight for the orphan and widow [Jas 1:27], to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with their God [Mic 6:8]. To take a stand, sacrifice and proclaim release to the prisoners, and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor [Lk 4:18-19; CEB].”

We look to Jesus. He is the anti-Empire. Jesus is the power that confronts power that oppresses and controls. Jesus is the power that will topple Empires and establish the Kingdom of God on earth. This is what we pray when we say the words, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in [the Kingdom of God] heaven.” Every time you say that prayer you are sayin, “It doesn’t have to be like this.” Every time you say that prayer you are Katniss (or I guess Peeta, sort of) believing that as long as you are faithful, bold and courageous, the Capitol will fall.

How long are you going to wait for good seats to watch this film? More time than you have served those who are less fortunate? Those who need your help? How long did you spend reading the books? More time than you have devoted to engaging wrongs in the city, state, country, world? I’m not suggesting you feel guilty, just aware. How can our choices make a difference?

There’s sooooooooo much more but, that’s enough for now. I’ll write more as there’s a need. Chime in here in the comments below. Let me know what you think. Let me know what your questions are. Let me know what direction to go should I dare address this again.

—————————————————————————————————
† Clawson, The Hunger Games and The Gospel, 2012.

Filed Under: Bible, GlenPresChurch, jesus and the kog, The Hunger Games Tagged With: , , , ,

Jesus to Christians: Grow Up

March 7, 2012 By 1 Comment

via Rev Tod

Filed Under: comedy, jesus and the kog

Nothing Is Impossible With God? Really???

December 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
  • When’s the last time you took your foot off the pedal and let God be God?
  • Do you tend to micro manage the Creator of the Universe and then get huffy because he didn’t do it like you told him
  • Then, do you give up because God is apparently “Out of Order?”
  • Perhaps if we just weave in a little Buddha, that’ll fix him just right.

    • There is this amazing moment in the Luke 1 passage where the angel that is speaking to Mary says, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

    Let that drop like a quasar on your soul.

    The truth is this: what is true for Mary is true for you.
    But the reality feels like this: My situation, my problems are to big for God.

    How is it that this promise has become so diluted in our faith culture? I think that we should be able to hang all of our hope on the knowledge that what is spoken here is true, as a statement and as testimony to a historical event:

    The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.”

    Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her. (Luke 1:35-38 NLT)

    I think this picture might illustrate the problem:

    Jesus said, “I am the Light.”
    This is a powerful statement.
    It means that into the darkness a light has shined.
    In the deep darkness of our lowest moment, Jesus is there.

    But we aren’t really comforted by that.
    We don’t want a God who is in control.
    Instead we want a god that we can control.
    We don’t want a Lord who is the light of the world.
    We want a lord who is a flashlight in our hand.
    One we can use to lighten our way…whichever way we choose.
    Or, perhaps, one that sits comfortably next to the Buddha (who promises to enlighten our way).

    But that’s not Jesus.
    Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life.
    Jesus is the Light of the World.

    “In him was life, and that life was the light of all people.
    The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. [Jn 1:4-5]“

    It’s true that nothing is impossible for God.

    Fred Craddock writes, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” That’s the text, and it is a preacher’s delight, because you don’t have to go into who said what to whom and bring up Samuel or Saul or Moses or Paul or anybody. It’s just one of those statements that’s true without context. Nothing is impossible with God. You can put it in a bottle and toss it in the sea and have it wash up on a distant shore, and it’s true. You can put it on a banner and have an airplane carry it across the sky, and it’s true. You can write it on a slip of paper and put it under your pillow; it’s true.”

    Don’t settle for an LED Jesus when the Light of the World is breaking into human history.

    What is true for Mary is true for you!

    Merry Christmas

    Filed Under: christmas, exegeticalness, gospels, jesus and the kog Tagged With: , , , , , ,

    Perry and the very scary parry

    September 13, 2011 By 2 Comments

    Vengeance is a confusing thing.

    On one hand we read the words of Jesus (Mt 5:21-22; Ex 20:13, Dt 5:17): “Do NOT murder!” This seems pretty clear: we have been made by the hands of a creating God, and our job as co-regents of his creation does not include the uncreation of living beings that have been created in his image.

    At the same time, we read:

    Revenge is my domain,
    so is punishment-in-kind,
    at the exact moment their step slips up,
    because the day of their destruction
    is just around the corner;
    their final destiny is speeding
    on its way! (Dt 32:35; CEB)

    This ‘Vengeance is mine!” verse is also quoted in Romans 12:19 and Hebrews 10:30.

    Flip over to the Psalms and we find the imprecatory prayers which seem to at least be ignorant of those passages, if not rebelling in spite of them: “The righteous will rejoice when they see vengeance done; they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked [Ps 58:10].” WOW!

    On Wednesday, September 8th, at the Republican Candidate debate, Gov. Rick Perry answered Brian Willimas’ question regarding the Death Penalty in such a way that has drawn joy, ire and opinion from most media outlets, social and otherwise (I think there was an AM station in Antarctica that missed it). Perry seems to support the Psalm text in his response, but the audience (which is the subject of most of the commentary) say those words with their hands. The applause after Perry’s response prompted a facebook friend of mine to say:


    Take a look at the moment in question.

    What do you think? Not about the death penalty, but the overwhelming support of it.

    In a later opinion article, one pundit was quoted as saying:

    Perry’s right — most people support the death penalty. It’s the job of those of us who oppose the death penalty to change that.

    It’s worth remembering that no Democratic nominee for the presidency in some twenty years, has been against the death penalty. This is still the country where we took kids to see men lynched, and then posed for photos.

    We are a lot of things. This is one of them.

    How should we interpret God’s insistence that revenge is his to administer?

    How do we respond to Jesus when “Do NOT murder!” is an imperative and not a mere suggestion?

    How should Jesus followers tread in a world that cries “Violence” before asking, “What’s it like where you are from? [Gen 6:13]”

    In Psalm 44:21 we find that, “God knows the every secret of the heart.” When one applauds the death of a person, even an evil one, is there a heart issue that only God knows — or a clear conscience that has nothing to hide? I have to say that I found the applause un-nerving. It was a politicized joy, a gubernatorial glee. That I found weird.

    Is vengeance a violation of ‘love of neighbor?’

    Dt 16:20 proclaims, “Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that you may live and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” Does this extend to Texas? Where does capitol justice reside? With the state or the Sovereign? Do we trust that God is capable of administering justice without our help? Perhaps that’s the problem…we can’t trust him. Maybe this theme of Scripture, this subplot of the biblical narrative is one like so many others that we can discard now that we are ‘culturally enlightened.’ Or…as many argue, we are the instruments of God’s vengeance. Instruments of vengeance or instruments of salvation? There’s one to wrestle with.

    Murder is wrong when it’s perpetrated by the criminal. Correct?
    What makes it different when it is executed by the just?
    And how should be handle…their applause?

    Filed Under: jesus and the kog, new testament, OT, theology

    Demons and other people who think differently than I do

    June 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment


    Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
    - Mark Twain

    I don’t tend to stray into the politiverse, and this post won’t be any different. Since Hell is definitely on our minds, I offer this to pyre of recent discussion. I haven’t read Coulter’s new book and won’t read it. So this isn’t a review. This isn’t even a guess as to what’s inside the cover of Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America.

    We ought to be careful who we label demons, and why we are labeling them. Do we mean little impish things with horns and bad breath? Or are we doing something more sinister than the image itself: trying to control the emotional and imaginative response of the listener by suggesting an image that evokes fear? Is all this about provoking fear? I think it is.

    When people think differently than we do, or I do, we tend to resort to the kind of mythology that creates a hero and a monster, like Theseus and the Minotaur. In Coulter’s case, we have Demons and, I suspect, the rival Angels. The problems with this are many, especially for those of us who follow Jesus (which we’ll come to in a moment). For one, this is an explicitly religious metaphor. Demons serve Satan and Angels serve God. While drawing from these characters of the Bible displays at least a handle on flannel board theology, it dangerously strips all humans of their ability to think, not just the ‘liberal mob.’ Angels carried the messages of God, they are not known for original thought. Demons, I suppose, are the same with Satan. They carry out the will of the one they serve. Both, in Scripture are rather horrific, but neither are famous for their independent will or thought.

    The problem with developing a culture of fear in politics, faith or anything else for that matter is that it creates an uncritical and unthinking audience. Humans become machines for which fear becomes the fuel, souls become shields and reason becomes an afterthought.

    Furthermore, who wants to have anything to do with demons? We want to avoid them at all costs. By painting a group of people as ‘demonic,’ it creates a new class of untouchable, a new group of unclean, a new dehumanized ghetto (Nazi much?)…a new Samaria. When a man asked Jesus, “who is my neighbor?” Jesus responded by naming a group of people who were the hated of the hated. The Samaritans were the ones whom the Hebrews prayed that God would pour out his wrath upon, and I imagine they were willing to help. But Jesus instructed him, as he does us today, to enter into the world of the Samaritan and give life saving, life honoring love. Jesus didn’t call the Samaritan woman at the well a demon, he offered her living water. He didn’t change her ‘party affiliation’, he transformed her from the inside out.

    Last week, I watched this talk given at the Mighty Waters Conference at Fuller Theological Seminary. The preacher is Brenda Salter McNeil and her words are astounding. I think she addresses this fear culture with grace and obedient thunder. The speaking starts at 9:00 (Mark Labberton and Fuller President Richard Mouw are in that first nine minutes.

    MW Session 2 Day 2 from Fuller Seminary on Vimeo.

    Today, the Church needs the courage to speak out on behalf of those whom pop authors label as demons. The Church is called into the new Samaria. The Church has one choice, to see all people as people that Christ loves and wants to welcome in the eternal Kingdom of God. It means that words like them and they and those people and this mob or that mob become distant memories of a language that did not speak with intelligence or authority.

    There is a new word: Us. When we speak Us, no one is a demon. When we speak Us, worlds change, children thrive and names become a blessing. When we speak Us, the Kingdom draws closer, Jesus is glorified and the Spirit moves without limitation.

    So what’s it going to be? Courage or fear? Us or just another tired and abrasive version of them?

    Filed Under: ecclesia, jesus and the kog, mere christianity, whatever i fear the most Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

    Switch: Jesus and Barabbas

    April 5, 2011 By 1 Comment

    Jesus and Barabbas

    One of the things that happens, one of the more obvious things that happens in Mark 15:6-15, is that Jesus switches places with Barabbas, the Switch. Here we find the work of God in the person of Jesus Christ doing what God has always done: moving from destruction to Salvation.

    One could imagine that the third crucifix was meant for Barabbas. Barabbas was in Pilate’s prison, waiting for Friday. This Jesus (MT 27:16) had earned his execution; he was contributing to the violent overthrow of Roman occupation. He was the embodiment of Jewish expectations of the Messiah. But that is not the story told by the cross. Barabbas wasn’t sacrificed for Jewish freedom. Jesus the Messiah was. He was sacrificed for the emancipation of the whole of humanity through all time and space. A much better deal.

    Now that’s some Switch.

    However, this wasn’t the first time that God stepped in to make a switch in history from a trajectory of destruction to one of salvation.

    Look at Abraham and Isaac. What looked like the end of a bloodline, became the genesis of a people in light of a ram that switched places at the last minute.

    How about Moses? In switching his Hebrew family for an Egyptian one, God freed a people of bondage and formed them into the people of the promise.

    And then there’s Joseph. When his brothers doomed him to servitude in a foreign land, God provided him with a path toward authority and again, brought deliverance and salvation.

    With the Abrahamic line at a near standstill, God switched extinction with the birth of Obed, the grandfather of David, through Ruth, a foreigner who switched homelands.

    And, Esther. A young Hebrew peasant who won a beauty pageant and switched places with a Queen. As Queen, she again saved the Hebrew people from extinction, creating a way for their salvation.

    God took great pains to open the doors to salvation through the cross. It was truly an historic undertaking. It is the heart and passion of God for his creation on full display. Could it have happened another way? Probably not. As Pastor Tim Keller puts it:

    In the end, [he] died on the cross and took the curse that our imperfect lives deserve. When we repent and believe in Jesus, all the punishment we are due is taken away, having been borne by him, and all the honor he is due for his righteous life and death is given to us. We are now loved and treated by God as if we had done all the great things that Jesus did. via

    This is not a message geared toward making you feel guilty. It’s not meant to make us feel bad about ourselves because we sin. If we’re feeling that, it’s more indicative of a culture that worships the cult of the individual instead of Jesus. This is the good news. It’s meant to make us feel great about grace, to find ourselves awestruck by God’s unsurpassed love for us, to desire to follow and obey him, to respond to Him.

    How do you respond to the switch, the great news of the cross?

    Filed Under: jesus and the kog, Lent, theology Tagged With: , , , ,

    Who is Jesus the Superstar?

    March 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

    My church, Glendale Presbyterian, is putting on a production of Jesus Christ Superstar.


    As a result, I’ve been thinking about, well…Jesus.

    Thought for the day:

    Christ’s humanity is threatening.
    He raises the bar too high.
    It becomes clear that the only way to be like him is to live through him.
    To take up our cross
    and march the lonely & terrible
    trail towards Golgotha.

    Filed Under: jesus and the kog, writing on Tagged With: , ,
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