"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Thursday, 26 February 2009 | |||
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Through the Water | |||
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I really like the Christian doctrine that in the middle ages
came to be called the "Harrowing of Hell." Our text this week,
I Peter 3:18-22, is one of the Bible texts on which this doctrine is
founded. Verses 18-20 say, "He was put to death in the body but made
alive in the Spirit. In that state he went and made proclamation to the
imprisoned spirits--to those who were disobedient long ago. . ."
Basically, it's understood that between His death on the Cross on Friday
and His resurrection on Sunday, Jesus descended into Hell (as we say in
the Apostles' Creed) and brought the Good News of His salvation and
forgiveness to Old Testament folk who had gone before. The doctrine is much disputed and many interpreters, both Catholic and Protestant, interpret Christ's descent into Hell as simply a way of saying that He did, in fact, truly die, "descending to the realm of the dead." There are other options as well, for instance that the "imprisoned spirits" were demons. However, as a fan of wonder and beauty in our faith, I prefer to hang onto the medieval account if at all possible. There is something grand and glorious about the thought that Christ entered and ravaged the domain of Hell, conquering the devil and his demons, and freeing human beings held in bondage there. The images I've posted here are from the Eastern Orthodox, who do a wonderful job of elevating the importance of Christ's resurrection and His victory over the powers of sin, death and the devil. In the first, He is passing through Hell's gates to grasp hold of the imprisoned. The more iconic image is a traditional Eastern portrayal where Christ stands on the gates of Hell (trampling down the power of evil), which have fallen together in the form of a Cross. In both, He is lifting up the lost into life. Peter, of course, connects Christ's rescue of the lost spirits with God's rescue of Noah and his family through the flood. That swirls together a set of images in one's mind so that Jesus is at the same time snatching sinners out of the fires of Hell and out of the deluge of the flood. The water, for Peter, recalls baptism, so that in the act of baptism we are reminded of how Jesus rescued us, lifting us up out of the overwhelming waters of sin and death into the safety of His kingdom. So a very early Christian symbol of salvation was an ark or a boat, often understood to be the Church itself (see below the Christian catacomb fresco of Noah riding safely in the ark, and the Orthodox icon of the naus ekklesia, the "Ship of the Church," with Christ and the apostles representing the whole Church). That's why the main seating area for the congregation in traditional church architecture is called the "nave" (think "navy" or "naval" for English cognates). So our text is a visually rich reminder of how Jesus Christ reaches down into all the trials and troubles of this life, even our own sin and failure, and draws us out into blessed hope and safety. Thus the chorus of the hymn, "In Shady Green Pastures," Some through the waters, some through the flood, Some through the fire, but all through the blood; Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song, In the night season and all the day long. May our Lord Jesus continue to harrow whatever "hell" you might be going through, and bring you safely through the floods of your life. | |||
Wednesday, 18 February 2009 | |||
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Enlightened Hearts - 2 | |||
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After the previous heady installment on the text for the
week,
II Corinthians 4:1-6, I feel moved to reflect a little more
personally. By widening the text a little beyond the lectionary (starting
with verse 1, rather than verse 3), we see that Paul is speaking in a
context in which he might easily be discouraged. He is clearly defending
his ministry against opponents in Corinth who appear to be questioning
both his methods and his motives. At a time when our congregation has shrunk a little, and like many, many congregations, is struggling to pay bills and salaries, it's easy to relate to Paul's defensiveness. I also can see in the first sentence of verse 2, "Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God," a response to those who invite struggling churches to adopt marketing techniques or to worship and behave in ways that are more "relevant" to contemporary life. I'm not saying that all invitations to churchly relevance involve "deception" or "distort" the teaching of Scripture, but I'm fairly sure that a number of them do. One example might be a worship style that plays into a contemporary tendency to individualism by encouraging a private and individual reception of Holy Communion rather than a corporate partaking. Another might be an understanding of faith that emphasizes personal experience over biblical truth, downplaying a good grasp of doctrine in favor of an exciting mission or ministry. Paul is arguing here that results are not everything in ministry. The fact that people are unresponsive to the Gospel is not ultimately his responsibility. Paul writes in verse 3, "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing." In other words, the mere fact that some cannot see the truth of Christ, are unconvinced, are unconverted, does not mean that a ministry has failed. It is Satan (v. 4) who has blinded them, not the preachers. So as verse 1 says, "we do not lose heart." That's a good word for these times. We are looking to see "God's glory displayed in the face of Christ," not a full church building or a large bank account. May we teach and serve in a way that makes His face more and more visible. | |||
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Enlightened Hearts - 1 | |||
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In Eastern religion and philosophy,
"enlightenment" is an awakening from greed, hate and delusion.
It is both a freeing from desire and coming to understand the true nature
of the world and the self (as illusions). The best-known form of Buddhism
in the West, Zen, teaches that enlightenment arrives through a
non-rational process of making oneself open to an unpredictable moment of
insight. Stuart C. Hackett, my old professor and author of Oriental
Philosophy: A Westerner's Guide to Eastern Thought, liked to tell
about the Buddhist text he found where a seeker receives enlightenment
upon hearing the sound of cow dung dropping. Eastern enlightenment
arrives by transcending reason and achieving a non-cognitive awareness of
reality. In the West, "enlightenment" became the term for an intellectual movement of the 18th century, when a number of scholars felt that human beings were, through proper exercise of reason, finally becoming mature. Immanuel Kant's famous essay, "What Is Enlightenment?" said, "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity." Kant's slogan, "Dare to be wise!" was a call for enlightened human beings to use reason to think for themselves in the public arena. He chastised religion and government for suppressing the free exercise of reason in all areas of public life. Western enlightenment arrives through embracing reason and applying it to all aspects of thought and behavior. In II Corinthians 4:1-6, Paul suggests that true enlightenment arrives through a light that comes to us from outside ourselves. It is not our achievement, either rationally or non-rationally. Enlightenment is neither a matter of abandoning reason, nor worshipping reason. It is the gift of God who "made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ." Both the Western and Eastern proponents of enlightenment view the human problem as a kind of ignorance or immaturity. For the East, it is ignorance of that which reason cannot discover. For the West, it is ignorance of that which reason, properly used, would clearly reveal. But for Paul and Christianity, the problem is not ignorance but sin. It is not that truth has not been discovered, it is that it has been hidden by the darkness of our hearts. Referring to Satan in verse 4, Paul writes, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ." If you like, and more positively, there is a glimmering of insight in both the East's and West's views of enlightenment. The East is correct in understanding that enlightenment is found in connecting to a reality that transcends the "boundaries of reason alone" (to use Kant's phrase). The West is correct in grasping that enlightenment involves connecting with a truth, upon which one's reason may be exercised with great delight and success. What both miss is that the reality and the truth which are the source of enlightenment is found in the person of Jesus Christ. We are enlightened as we encounter Jesus and accept His light as it both convicts us and forgives us of our sin, then transforms us into persons who now live in His light and truth. | |||
Tuesday, 10 February 2009 | |||
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Run for the Prize | |||
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I've tried to be a regular runner since college, with a few
periods of months or a year when I ran very little. Long ago, in the
middle of one of those running lapses, I was convinced to enter a
friendly fund raising race, a 5K (about 3 miles). Since, when I did run,
I was used to distances of 4 or 5 miles, I thought I could do it, even
though I hadn't run in half a year. It was a disaster. I pooped out on a
gentle hill and ended up walking the last half of the race, barely
finishing. It wasn't long after that I pushed myself back into the
discipline of regular running. The Apostle Paul probably became acquainted with running as a sport during his times in Greece. He would certainly have been aware of the various stadia and the games which took place in them. So in I Corinthians 9:24-27, Paul applies an image of the Greek athlete in training to the spiritual life, urging us to observe strict training and run "so as to get the prize." It is perfectly acceptable to hear in this text an individualized call to strive faithfully in the Christian life. Paul himself states in verse 27 that he engages in self-discipline so that he personally might not be disqualified from the spiritual prize. Yet it's also good to read the text carefully in its context, sandwiched in a discussion of the proper exercise of Christian freedom in the community (the subject of chapters 8-10). The spiritual self-discipline pictured by athletic training in Paul's metaphor is the restraint of personal freedom for the sake of others in the Church. So the focus is not wholly on individual spiritual accomplishment and reward as it is on the well-being of the Church community as a whole. Richard Hays, in his Interpretation commentary on I Corinthians, boldly suggests that if Paul had known about team sports (a rarity in the ancient world), it might have been an even better athletic image for what he was driving at. One's Christian self-sacrifice, training and discipline are all aimed at a mutual victory, not just a single super-saint attaining a heavenly reward. Paul's implied community sense is heard in verse 25, when he uses the first person plural to say, "we do it to get a crown that will last forever." In any case, this text "jogs" us to active, disciplined participation in the new life we have in Christ. There are no spectators in the Christian stadium. We are all in the games. May we show it in the way we live and seek to avoid those lapses in discipline that can be as spiritually disastrous as my unprepared 5K was years ago. | |||
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Profile |
I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
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