darkness used to live here

January 15, 2012 By 1 Comment

The Gospel of John, 1:5, “…and darkness did not overcome it.”

John does not implicitly say that light has overcome darkness. We can be sure, and find a divine sort of comfort and peace in the fact, that it has already overcome darkness, in a future sense.

John is addressing the reality that in all of our lives, in all that we experience and can see, it often feels like darkness is darkness is on the march towards victory. As if twilight is soon to be fully eclipsed by the night. Here, as always, feeling

But God has even set the moon and stars in their courses; who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever, who made the sun to rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures forever, the moon and stars to rule over the night, for his steadfast love endures forever [Ps 136:7-9].”

We have seen the Light of God’s glory in Jesus and that Light, that brilliant and dazzling glory, will not only put the electric company out of business and render the sun impotent, but that Light will take its rightful place as our one true source:

And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of the Lord is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb [Rev 21:23].”

Filed Under: contemporary hermeneutic, john Tagged With: , , ,

Words Like Packing Peanuts

December 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart [Lk 2:19].”

“Mommy, tell me the story of the night I was born.”

Mary knew that one day, her son would ask her that question. When I asked my Mom about the day I was born, it was a cool story, but it wasn’t like Mary’s. Mary’s involved travel, homelessness, uncomfortable donkey riding, stables and food troughs, but it also involved shepherd and angels. Sometime, between the cord being cut and the baby’s first diaper change, a ruffian group of hyped out sheep wranglers came knocking on the stable door.

Their eyes were filled with wonder and stories of God’s glory fell from their mouths (not what you would expect to hear from a first century Palestinian shepherd.) The words they spoke were resplendent and would have been difficult to take in. I imagine that the words they were saying fell around Mary like…like packing peanuts. They were difficult to grasp and harder still to hold together.

Luke 2, verse 19 says that Mary treasured the words and she pondered them in her heart. The Greek adds some additional flavor. The word for treasure is a word picture. It’s like Mary picking up packing peanuts one at a time, finding a place in her arms for each one. The next phrase, pondering them in her heart, is another word picture: it means to throw together. Jesus used this word when he talked about counting the cost of following him and said, “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? [Lk 14:31].” No one, throws together a war (hopefully), it’s careful and studied…intentional [Pro 20:18]

Mary threw their words together and grasped after them like picking up packing peanuts after a move.

The Gospel story is not just words that we are supposed to understand. It’s a greater than words kind of story. Like Mary, we gather the words together, but commit ourselves to living life with Christ, moment by moment. We don’t have to explain it, we get to experience it.

Christmas is an invitation to experience the presence of Christ wordlessly, without dissertation or explanation. And as Mary treasured and pondered the story as it began, we do the same…as it continues.

Merry Christmas!

Filed Under: christmas, luke, NTGreek, preaching

Incarnation and…menstruation

December 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In John’s birth narrative, we read in verse 14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only [Son], who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The greek verb that gets translated as made his dwelling among is skay-na-oh, which has a more euphemistic translation of “pitched a tent.”

The point is, Jesus (God) came to earth and made his dwelling alongside us. He dwelt among us. We call this action the Incarnation. Jesus took on our flesh, to become like us.

From India, there is a story that is so incarnational it’s unbelievable how far Arunachalam Muruganantham went to embody the suffering of the other and find a solution at the risk of losing everything.

When Arunachalam Muruganantham hit a wall in his research on creating a sanitary napkin for poor women, he decided to do what most men typically wouldn’t dream of. He wore one himself–for a whole week. Fashioning his own menstruating uterus by filling a bladder with goat’s blood, Muruganantham went about his life while wearing women’s underwear, occasionally squeezing the contraption to test out his latest iteration. It resulted in endless derision and almost destroyed his family. But no one is laughing at him anymore, as the sanitary napkin-making machine he went on to create is transforming the lives of rural women across India.

Yes, you read that correctly!

Why did he do this? Women in India use a whole variety of things that most women would shudder to think of because “buying sanitary napkins meant no milk for the family.”

  • The women in his life left him.
  • He was “called a psycho, a pervert, and [was] accused of dabbling in black magic.”

    • And after wading through a MAJOR cultural taboo (probably not fearlessly, but definitely courageously) he succeeded…and his wife has returned to him. Whew!

    Read the rest of this strange and wonderful article here

    Filed Under: christmas, gospels, john Tagged With: , ,

    Do Wimpy Lambs Play Dress Up? A look at men in church

    November 21, 2011 By 2 Comments

    The Christian man.

    When men of the church think about what it means to be one and ask the question, “Do I want to be one?” the answer frequently turns out to be a regretful, “No.”

    As much as I should admonish my shy and non-committal brothers, the truth is…I completely understand. Whereas women in culture and scripture suffer from expectations that are too high (see Proverbs 31:10-31; excellent sermon on this here), men in culture and scripture suffer from an expectation that is inexplicably low.

    In early church art, the Christian man, namely the apostle, looks like this. Now, I know the times were different then, but these guys look like they were playing dress up with blankets. That’s not something that men want to be associated with. We suffer from a confusing and weak self image as it is. Follow Jesus and you can play dress up? I think that most men want a little bit more.

    Some of the issues stem directly from Scripture. Look at MT 5:39. Jesus asks us to be wimps. Don’t hit back. Instead, get beat up. Who wants that? I want to be like Jet Li staring down the onslaught of archers at the end of the movie Hero, not red faced because I can’t stop an angry person from slapping me…twice!

    And what about MT 10:16?

    Really? This is what I have to look forward to? Becoming a lamb? Awesome! I don’t know a man in the world who wants to look like this. I can’t evangelize and ask other men to become mutton. We want to be wolves! We want to be the thing that eats the wolves. We want danger. We want to play with fire. We want to run around the sanctuary with scissors. Lamb! And please…don’t give me that if you were higher evolved or more enlightened or more filled with the holy spirit you would want to “Baa” for Jesus.

    Now Samsung knows what men want.

    This is a great ad targeting the wants and needs of the male ego. We don’t need much, we just don’t want to be wimpy lambs playing dress up with blankets. How could the Bible get it so wrong?

    I love these lines: “No one ever stood in front of the mirror with a hair brush pretending to be the tambourine player.” We Aspire…that’s just the way we’re wired.

    Samsung knows we’re wired differently. Didn’t Jesus?

    I think he did.

    The next few posts will look at MT 10:16-42, dismantling the myth that Christian man need to play dress up, be wimpy and Baa.

    Filed Under: Bible, exegeticalness, matthew Tagged With: , , , ,

    Jesus and Subversive Equality

    November 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

    Continued from Jesus and Subversive Equality:

    John has preached the baptism of repentance to the crowd.
    He has preached it to the tax collectors.
    He has preached it to the Roman soldier.
    And he has also preached it to Jesus.

    Wait…did I hear that correctly (sound of record skipping)?
    Jesus responded to John’s message of repentance?
    Is that possible?

    The truth of it is…well the truth.

    “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” [Luke 3:21-22]

    Matthew, never to be outdone by Luke, recorded the event like this:

    Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. [Mt 3:13-15].

    Jesus’ rationale here is perplexing and more than a little bit curious, don’t you think? “Fulfill all righteousness?” One might assume that that business was done on the cross, but the gospel seems to indicate otherwise, righteousness…right relationship with God…was offered in the Jordan River.

    How does this happen? Two ways.
    The second legitimizes the first.

    First, a right relationship with God can be offered by Christ, but frankly begins because of individual initiative †. John offers a baptism of repentance, metanoia in the Greek and shuv in Hebrew. Both terms mean an person’s acknowledgment that they are headed in the wrong direction (away from God) and desire to turn around (180°) and come back to God. This is a move towards a right relationship. Obviously, a wrong relationship looks like one party headed away from the other, right? Right.

    In joining us in the baptism of repentance, both sides of the relationship were represented. Imagine what would have happened if Jesus hadn’t done this. Well…nothing would have changed, really. Just look at everything leading up to that moment in Scripture. If you were banking somehow on salvation, you had to do stuff. Up to this point, aside from the unique message John was preaching, there wasn’t any real difference:

    Getting wet = another shot at redemption.

    But God met us in the water. God did what we did. Movement for movement, dance for dance, the Lord matched humanity: first in repentance, then in temptation, in ministry, in suffering and in death.

    The writer of Hebrews has an interesting take on this saying, “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.” I’m not sure that I would have said it like that, but no one asked me.

    This baptism, therefore, was no longer another way to do what God wanted us to do, but became a way to do what God himself did. Marinate in the vastness of that for a brief moment.

    Second, going back to the Isaiah passage:

    As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
    “A voice of one calling in the desert,
    ‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.
    Every valley shall be filled in,
    every mountain and hill made low.
    The crooked roads shall become straight,
    the rough ways smooth.”
    And all mankind will see God’s salvation [Lk 3:4-6; NRSV].”

    This is Jesus preparing the way to become the Way, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage [Phil 2:6].” Jesus made low his own mountain, becoming one of us, like us, “rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human being, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death–[Phil 2:7-8].”

    Jesus made himself an equal.
    He filled in our valley, making our crooked path straight.
    He became the smooth way, lowering his own mountain.
    Do you see the breadth of the Isaiah’s vision?

    Look at what he says in Luke 22:25-26, “Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.”

    As Lord and King, he could have demanded that we submit to his authority.
    He could have maintained a very common, very human, easily understood paradigm of power.
    But he totally subverts it by becoming one of us.

    To enter into his authority, we (you and I) get to, have to, choose to submit to him. Beautiful, isn’t it? From the very beginning, he sets the tone and it’s a footrace to see who can out serve the other. Of course, we can’t out-servant the Servant King, but in the very beginning of this narrative, we are invited into an alarmingly dynamic relationship with God, as Jesus and living Word. From the very beginning of the story we are interdependently intertwined in Christ’s new reality: Subversive Equality.

    If John’s sermon spoke to the crowd, the tax collector and the Roman soldier, what did Jesus’ baptism say to them? Open your Bible, app, link to Luke 3 and turn the page…

    † For our Reformed friends, this initiative begins only after, and as a response to, the invitation and urging of the Holy Spirit.

    Filed Under: exegeticalness, gospels, isaiah, luke, preaching Tagged With: , , , , ,

    neptune loves the little guy

    November 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

    Continued from these are just work practices:

    So, John is waist deep in the river, people are coming to him participating in some water immersion ritual in which they return renewed and committed to a “Godly” life. His beard is dripping with river water, his honey diet honed twelve pack has him ripped like a marble statue. What might the Roman soldiers standing nearby be asking?

    Is this Neptune?

    They were probably there to keep any thoughts of rebellion down to a bare minimum, but they had to see the effects of John’s ministry. When you watch people descend from the hills, seemingly from nowhere, and gravitate towards this man who appeared to come from the water it must have been a pretty powerful image. It’s possible that the Roman soldiers were just making sure they showed respect to their favorite water deity, but all the more likely they were being swayed by John’s preaching. If Neptune crawls from the water, that’s something you never necessarily thought you’d see, but when he starts creating these vivid mental pictures in his preaching, that might create an existential dilemma for you if your job is to remain detached, objective and ready to separate sinew from bone should it become necessary.

    But the soldiers step forward and ask the question, “What about us?”

    I believe that there’s is the most courageous, for they are aware that the answer could completely up end their sense of being and reality ✝. Which, of course, it does. What is interesting here is that, if only for a moment, those Roman soldiers who spoke up are living in a realm where Religion is more important than Politic, or the fire of the Savior King is stronger than the sword of Caesar. That they break their silence demonstrates what powerful ministry was happening through the baptism of repentance.

    Transformation is any life is a powerful witness in the world. It makes us ask questions: How did that happen?Where did it come from?

    John’s response is roughly, “Don’t use your power to fill your pockets. Be content.” You could look at it another way, “Stand up for the little guy instead of standing on top of him.” Looking through the rubric of the Isaiah prophecy that begins this whole scene, Luke 3:4-6, these soldier are poor mountains. They are at the top of the food chain, powerful, strong and capable of unleashing the fury of Rome upon any who, well, were there. So there is a strong/weak power differential, which John points out.

    A life that bears the fruit of repentance [Lk 3:8], uses power to benefit the weak instead of punishing them with it. The mountain is made low.

    In our world, we see that differential everywhere don’t we? We live that differential. There are those that we look upon as much less powerful than ourselves, huh? If you are reading this, you are in a literate, post technological caste that most of the world doesn’t exist within. You complain when there’s no free wi-fi. They complain when there’s no potable water. That’s a big difference.

    The Kingdom creates a way for wifi to translate to transformation for places that can’t access clean water. Look at water.org. The Kingdom creates a way for wifi to become an agent of transformation for third world small business. Look at keva.org.

    For the soldiers, this Kingdom view of living not only radically reoriented their understanding of ‘courage and being’, a military man by definition, but invited them into a pattern of trust and relationship with the community around them. Were they to bear fruit worthy of repentance, their God would become real, their courage would become real and their lives would become real as well.

    Or perhaps they just thought, “Man, that Neptune sure loves the little guy!”

    ✝ “The ethical question of the nature of courage leads inescapably to the ontological question of the nature of being. And the procedure can be reversed. The ontological question of the nature of being can be asked as the ethical question of the nature of courage. Courage can show us what being is, and being can show us what courage is.” Tillich – The Courage to Be

    Last post is on the way: Jesus and Subversive Equality

    Filed Under: exegeticalness, gospels, isaiah, luke, preaching Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

    these are just work habits

    November 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

    Continued from: The Kingdom Cuts You In Half

    After John addresses the whole crowd, apparently, some tax collectors want to get in on the action. Who wouldn’t though, right? “The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Those are some strong words! Does anyone really want to be one of those trees?

    Well, the tax collectors don’t. They’ve been watching, seeing lives changed and hearts moved. People are being transformed in front of them. Now tax collectors, while wealthy, weren’t the most beloved of individuals in Roman culture. They collected taxes and had the rep of your average IRS auditor (just playing off a cliche, please don’t take it personally). The real problem was what they collected in addition to the taxes, their cut. The way that they made money was by graft. They added to the tax they charged a healthy profit. If you paid them tax, you were doubled then nothing: The invoice was double and left you with nothing.

    I would imagine they found that all the money in the world doesn’t do you a whole lot of good when you don’t have love.

    It’s hard not to be loved.
    It makes you want a miracle.
    Something that will blunt the searing burn of isolation.
    To numb the pain of your uneasy soul.

    He told them, “No more extortion-collect only what is required by law.”

    The answer should have been obvious. Stop doing the thing that’s making people not like you. But it’s not always that easy, is it? I mean, once we get into the groove of doing what we have to, it’s hard to stop. If you first buy a house, then two cars, then three jet skis, a boat or two and a posh Golf course membership, you do what you have to to keep that standard of living going…even if it’s not living at all. It’s easy to be possessed by possessions. It’s an intoxicating illusion, an idol.

    What John the Baptist suggests will surely result in bankruptcy, but bankruptcy in this case equals freedom.

    The Tax Collectors were rich valleys: all the money in the world, but it didn’t afford them life. They walked a crooked path. The words of the prophet Isaiah came to life in John’s exhortation: make low mountains, make what is crooked straight. The Kingdom of God at work in the life of the tax collector was an accounting nightmare, but a win for God’s justice on the earth.

    The Zacchaeus story is a great illustration:

    When Jesus got to the tree, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry down. Today is my day to be a guest in your home.” Zacchaeus scrambled out of the tree, hardly believing his good luck, delighted to take Jesus home with him. Everyone who saw the incident was indignant and grumped, “What business does he have getting cozy with this crook?”

    Zacchaeus just stood there, a little stunned. He stammered apologetically, “Master, I give away half my income to the poor-and if I’m caught cheating, I pay four times the damages.” Jesus said, “Today is salvation day in this home! Here he is: Zacchaeus, son of Abraham! For the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost.” [Luke 19:5-10]

    Preparing the way of the Lord doesn’t simply look like some rocks getting kicked off the driveway. It looks like lives transformed in challenging, difficult, unpredictable and uncomfortable ways. It produces just work habits in the most unjust jobs.

    But that’s what it takes to make low mountains.

    next up: Neptune loves the little guy

    Filed Under: exegeticalness, gospels, isaiah, luke, preaching Tagged With: , , , , ,

    the kingdom cuts you in half

    November 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

    continued from the matrixization of isaiah 40:3-5

    John the Jesus Recognizer, and Baptizer, gazes across the brood of vipers, otherwise known as the people who were listening to him, and he rips through them with this, “The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Not wanting to be thrown “into the fire,” Luke mentions that the crowd begins to ask for an alternative.

    “What should we do?” they ask. “What does it look like to live a life the bears fruit worthy of repentance?”

    John answers, not with theology or doctrine, but with a practical way to prepare the way of the Lord that fulfills the Isaiah prophecy at the same time. “If you have two coats, give one away,” he said. “Do the same with your food.” In this world, there are the haves and the have nots. Here, John addresses both, not to make the haves feel guilty or the have nots feel worthless, but to invite both into a life that engages the presence of the Kingdom of God on earth.

    When a “have” gives one shirt away from their abundance, to someone who has none, then both end up having one…the same…they are equal. The Kingdom of God creates equality through repentance. Repentance is shared between the richest and poorest because it’s about the heart, not money. John is preaching a message of justice to the crowd. Isaiah’s message to the Hebrew exiles comes to life on the banks of the river Jordan.

    “Valleys will be filled up.
    Mountains will be made low.     ”

    The Kingdom of God is not alternative economic system, in the sense of the word. It’s not Communism for Christians. We get our word economy from the Greek, oikonomia, which means ‘household management’. If Christians are gathered into one body, a new community under one roof as it were, the question is, “how does the new community run?”

    Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Life Together, writes:

    Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. What does this mean? It means, first, that a Christian needs others because of Jesus Christ. It means, second, that a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ. It means, third, that in Jesus Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, and united for eternity. [p.21]

    Chosen from eternity.
    Accepted in time.
    United for eternity.

    The church finds it’s location there, between chosen and united. Eugene Peterson writes:

    Church is the core element in the strategy of the Holy Spirit for providing human witness and physical presence to the Jesus-inaugurated kingdom of God in this world. It is not that kingdom complete, but it is a witness to that kingdom.

    To quote, Fr. Gregory Boyle, “Marinate in the vastness of that!”

    The message of John in the wilderness is no different than what Jesus himself continues on the Mount, “You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you [Mt 5:38-42].”

    When the Kingdom cuts you in half, providing for someone’s scarcity out of your abundance, the valley of poverty is filled up. It becomes level. At the same time, the mountain is made low. It, too, becomes level. And its not just about money.

    Is the Salvation Army pick up on your mind?
    What do you do with your surplus stuff?
    Are you material for that show, what’s it called…?
    Have ou heard of water.org?
    Compassion International?
    World Vision?
    What about Homeboys Industries?
    Who do you know that needs your time and attention?
    Where can you plug in in your community?

    How can you make low mountains and high valleys?

    Just saw this pic on twitter.

    I think it preaches.

    Next up: these are just work habits

    Filed Under: exegeticalness, gospels, isaiah, luke, preaching Tagged With: , , , , ,

    the matrixization of Isaiah 40:3-5

    October 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

    So, John is in the Jordan river basin watching the crowds descend like vipers fleeing a fire. His baptism is one of repentance, asking people to turn from the actions, words and thoughts of a life contrary to God’s intended for his creation and re-orienting them back to the With-God life.

    Standing waist deep, by the river’s edge, this camel hair coutured, honey gorging prophet began his sermon with a Hebrew Testament prophetic word from the Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah spoke to a people who were in exile, waiting for the day where all things would be made normal again, all things righted by the hand of their Savior King:

    As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
    “A voice of one calling in the desert,
    ‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.
    Every valley shall be filled in,
    every mountain and hill made low.
    The crooked roads shall become straight,
    the rough ways smooth.”
    And all mankind will see God’s salvation [Lk 3:4-6; NRSV].”

    Here’s a matrix style video animation of the text above…read along. I would have added to text to the animation, but I’m blogging here…who has that kind of time?


    *only from the minds of some Edwards

    The reason that I went with the Matrix vibe on this video breaks down like this:

    When John the Baptist used this text to illustrate what was about to happen, the people who were listening caught on. The phrase, “Prepare the way for the Lord” had historic weight. When a King came to your town or community, you would “make straight paths for him.” You would literally, roll out the red carpet, making his approach as smooth and regal as possible.

    This was the original, “the end is near” sermon. John is preaching the end of an era, the Savior King is on the way! The trouble was, how would you recognize the Savior King among such a great and eclectic crowd?

    John the Baptist had another job, he was the chief Jesus Recognizer. John the Baptist had the unique gift of recognizing Jesus. Like a Qui Gon Jinn or Morpheus. In Star Wars, Qui Gon Jinn recognized Annakin as the one who would restore balance to the force. Morpheus was the recognizer of the One (who happened to be Keanu Reeves in a trench coat). His job was to find the human embodiment of an aging prophecy.

    The One was on the way and way was prepared through repentance.

    So, what do the baptism of repentance and the Isaiah passage have in common? John shows us three different ways in Luke 3:7-18.

    Coming up next: The Kingdom of God cuts you in half!

    Filed Under: exegeticalness, gospels, isaiah, luke, preaching Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

    like walking by the sea: create | breathe | repeat

    October 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

    Ever get the feeling that you were created for a reason?

    If you do, then you must also have had those moments where you are aware that there’s something about what you’re doing, where you find yourself, how you are relating to the world around you that is contrary to your created purpose. One of the most intriguing and challenging concept of the Christian faith is this: you are created in the image of God. Now, granted, you don’t look like God…the mere sight of his glory cleft Moses in a rock. But your mechanics, your inward make-up, the output of the heart…humanity is a divine composite of the image.

    וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמֹו 1בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתֹו זָכָר 2וְּנְקֵבָה בָּרָא אֹתָם
    “So God created humankind in his image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them [Gen 1:27].”

    The Psalmist notes that we are “fearfully and wonderfully created by your laboring hands [Ps 135:14].”
    Basically, what this means is “you are a marvelous masterpiece that inspires awe in the hearts of those who see you.”

    This is a video by an artist in Norway named Theo Jansen, who creates these living things made of PVC and assorted material. He takes them down to the beach where they are wind operated…”then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being [Gen 2:7].” Sound familiar?

    Isn’t that amazing?

    In some abstract and profoundly beautiful way, the creations image their creator. They, in themselves — as much as you could call them a ‘self’– image his love for them, his fascination with them and his marvel at them. A friend pointed out that reproduction is a hallmark of the idea of a living being, however, while that’s certainly a purpose, men and women who for many reasons can’t reproduce aren’t any less living being. I’m certainly not proscribing humanity to these walking kites, but merely wanting to illustrate with sound and image, another way to experience those Gen 1 and 2 texts.

    While these creations receive the ‘breath’ and walk on the seashore, those who image God — according to Paul — image God with a certain movement as well: namely, doing good. In contrast to those rebellions, idle talking, deceivers (who bear the image but refuse to live into it — glad, that doesn’t happen today!), about whom Paul writes, “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their actions. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. [Ti 1:16].” Good work (καλῶν ἔργων – ergon is where we get the work term ‘ergonomic’). Paul brings it up 5 times in the letter of Titus, not as a means of salvation, but as evidence of it [Ti 3:8].

    In chapter one, as Paul defines the character needed for an elder…it’s inspired by the evidence of salvation. In chapter two, he does the same for the members of the church: good works as the evidence of salvation (not the cause of it).

    If you get the feeling that you were created for a reason, it’s because you were. You were created to image God, the same God witnessed in the person of Christ who did the ‘work’ of God’s hand. It was great work. He took broken hearts and smashed pieces and created mosaics a new humanity.

    Paul is reminding us that our ‘work’ is no less poetic, no less marvelous.
    When we participate in acts of reconciliation, we create fellowship where none existed.
    When we dedicate ourselves to causes of justice, we create freedom where non existed.
    When we allow our love of neighbor to proceed without prejudice, we create acceptance where none existed.
    How are you ‘making’ God’s image ‘work’ in you?

    Create. Breathe. Repeat.

    Good work!

    For more on Theo Jansen from TED 2007
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    Filed Under: character | virtue, ecclesia, exegeticalness, Titus Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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