Isaiah (3)

Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth;
For the Yahweh speaks,
“Sons I have reared and brought up,
But they have revolted against Me.
“An ox knows its owner,
And a donkey its master’s manger,
But Israel does not know,
My people do not understand.” Isaiah 1:2-3.

The heavens and the earth are called to bear witness to God’s Word through Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah is not selecting twelve citizens of Judah to act a a jury, he is calling the entire universe to witness what God is saying and to judge the actions of Judah and Jerusalem. Isaiah is not going through a jury selection process, he is bringing the heavens and the earth into the courtroom - for the truth of God’s Word will be apparent to those who can still see clearly, who have not been intoxicated by rebellion, who still remain in harmony and accord with their Creator.

Even in our own violent times, most of us are repelled at reports of patricide and matricide; to kill one’s own parents is beyond what we can comprehend. We are also puzzled when children hatefully rebel against parents who we know to be kind and giving and loving; taking advantage of their parents, perhaps stealing from them, maybe even robbing them of all they have - be it large or small. It is as if the children have repudiated their parentage, denied their father and mother; going so far as to abuse their parents for the children’s gain and benefit.

Rebellion breeds rebellion - we reap what we sow and we cannot control the harvest of hate and violence that springs up when we sow rebellion - those who plant seeds of rebellion will not eat the harvest...the harvest will eat them.

In our passage the heavens and earth are witness to the centuries-old love and kindness of God toward Judah; He has been their father and they have been His sons and daughters. He has cared for them, delivering them from the slavery of Egypt, making provision for them in their Wilderness wanderings, making further provision for them in Canaan, and continuing to care for them through the centuries...even when they have rejected Him and aligned themselves with other gods, with other “parents”.

But enough is becoming enough, for God is a holy Father, a righteous Father, and a just Father. As God was rearing His son Israel He laid out what the future would look like if Israel were obedient and faithful to His ways, and also what the future would look like if Israel repudiated the ways of God’s family. (See Deuteronomy chapters 28 - 31). Throughout the Bible we see that God disciplines those He loves (Revelation 3:19; Hebrews 12:4 - 11), and we also see that those who reject God’s progressive discipline, that those who refuse to say to God, “Thy will be done,” will suffer the consequences when God says to them, “Since you do not want my will, I will allow your will to be done.”

Judah the son had rejected Yahweh the Father - Judah repudiated its Divine parentage, its birthright, its blessing. Even an ox and a donkey know better, they know where they belong, they know their master - they understand more than Israel and Judah. And I think they understand more than we probably do today.

God has been good to all the peoples of the earth (Acts 17:24 - 28; Psalm 104); His common grace and goodness have been showered on us all, whether we are thankful or unthankful (Matthew 5:45) - but sadly we take the life-giving sun and the refreshing rain for granted, we take this marvellous planet we live on for granted, we do not recognize the providence of God in our lives; we think we are here to take, take, take and then take some more. We will take as individuals, as families, as nations - we are like the two-year old who thinks, “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine.” What is amusing in a two-year old is toxic in adults. We may make rules to govern how we take things, but in the end they do not curb our appetites; the farther we are from God the more insensible to goodness and charity we become.

As we shall see, Judah made idols, and we have made our own idols - they are a bit more sophisticated than Judah’s, and perhaps for that reason they are more insidious.

I imagine that every people group has experienced the grace and mercy of God, not the least of which is the USA; and yet “American does not know, America does not consider.” The same can be said for many nations, perhaps for most nations, for God is not a respecter of persons. When a people reject the image of God as the West has done, what is left? How much further can we go in our rebellion before enough is enough?

Ah, but then there is the professing church. While God is the Father “from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name” (Ephesians 3:15), He is the particular Father to His sons and daughters in Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:9 - 13). Just as ancient Israel wanted a king so that it would be like the surrounding nations, so much of the church wants to be like the world, the present age, so that it will blend in and not be distinctive, not be identifiable. We do not want others to know who our Father is, we may huddle together on Sundays and sit around His Table, but when we leave our gatherings we are careful to identify with the parents of the world, the gods of the world, and are careful not to mention who our Father is - we want to blend in, we want to be accepted, we are ashamed of our Father’s House, we are ashamed of our elder brother Jesus Christ.

Perhaps we have forgotten Peter’s words that judgment begins with the house of God (1 Peter 4:17). God is not like an earthly judge who might make judicial exceptions for his own family while judging others according to the law - we must not make God in our image and we are fools if we attempt to do so - God is altogether righteous and just and holy - He is not to be manipulated and He will not conform or bow to our wishful thinking. If God judged Israel He will judge us. If God judged the nations around Israel He will continue to judge the nations of the world. If God judged Israel - Judah He will judge His New Israel, the Church (see Revelation chapters 2 - 3 as an example).

The ox and the donkey get it - they know who their master is, and in some degree they know who they are; and they certainly know where they belong.

What about us?

Isaiah (2)

What Do We See?

Isaiah 1:1

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

What do we see when we look around us? When we read, listen, or watch the news? What do we see in the workplace, in community, in school, in government? The fact that we “see” different things is demonstrated in any number of ways; some “see” gun control, others don’t. Some see universal medical coverage, others don’t. Some see liberal immigration policies, others don’t. Some Christians see the Great Commission, others don’t. Over and over again we “see” that we don’t all “see” things the same way.

In some instances whether or not we see things the same way doesn’t matter; some of us just can’t see having anchovies on pizza , many of us would probably take a pass on liver and onions; if you are not a fan of the New York Yankees you probably can’t see how anyone can root for them and if you are a fan you can’t understand why everyone doesn’t see the light and support the greatest baseball franchise in history.

However, there are times when not seeing things the same way really does matter. If you are approaching a traffic signal and you have a green light and the driver on an intersecting street doesn’t “see” his red light and runs the light and hits you - then how we see things will matter very much. When the driver at fault stands before a judge and says, “Your honor I didn’t see the red light,” he will find himself accountable for not seeing what he should have seen.

When motorcyclists are hit by cars it is often because the driver of the car didn’t see the motorcycle; so a smart motorcyclist learns to ride as if no automobile driver sees him; he has to ride based on what he sees while also riding with the assumption that no one sees him.

When we are focused on ourselves we are less likely to “see” the pain of others, less likely to see their needs. Perhaps one reason the church in the West does not share Jesus is that it is self-centered, we don’t see the need in others, we don’t see that people need the Lord. It is as if we have a cure for cancer but refuse to share it - we value our comfort too highly. People with full stomachs tend not to think about those starving; people who are healthy often aren’t concerned about the sick; people in nice houses aren’t often thinking about people living under an overpass. This is the nature of who we are outside of Christ, it is the human condition. We ought not to trust our vision, our way of seeing things. If we are honest with ourselves we can hopefully say that we’ve been wrong more than once, that we’ve not always seen things clearly. The Bible tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things, the same is true for our vision, our way of seeing.

Isaiah “saw” a vision in Isaiah 1:1, and as we read Isaiah Chapter One we can note that what he “saw” was the true condition of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. In ancient Israel prophets were once known as “seers”, they were called seers because they saw things that others didn’t see, they saw things as God saw them. God gives us His Word so that by and through the Word and the Holy Spirit we can learn to see as God sees, but when we abandon His Word we consign ourselves to blurred vision, even blindness; we might call it hallucinogenic blindness because we think we see things as they are but we don’t - to see things as they are is to see them (in a measure at least) as God sees them, anything else is blurred vision, a hallucination, smoke and mirrors.

Isaiah saw a sick people because God saw a sick people. They were a religious people (see verses 14 & 15), but they were not a godly people. We can allow our religious practices to blind us, we can go through the motions with our bodies and words but our hearts can be far from God. We have the amazing capacity to deceive ourselves in order to justify our sin and we can arrogantly claim that God is blessing us and will bless us and that He will protect us - this is what the people of Judah and Jerusalem were doing, singing “God bless Judah, land that I love,” at every baseball game. They did not “see” that they had departed from the true and living God, and consequently they did not see the judgment of God that was happening to them, even as Isaiah spoke and wrote the vision that he saw.

We see this phenomenon in the Major and Minor prophets. God’s prophets see what others don’t see, including what the rulers and religious leaders don’t see; many of the kings and religious leaders and other “prophets”  attacked and persecuted God’s prophets; killing some, ostracizing others, and even viewing the Word of God through the prophets as treasonous - after all, prophesying God’s judgment can be demoralizing to a nation - at least a nation that refuses to repent.

When the writer of the NT book of Hebrews talks about the men and women of faith in Hebrews Chapter 11, he points out that these women and men saw life differently than their contemporaries; an essential element of faith is seeing the invisible, having a different kind of sight; it is wearing corrective vision and not looking at what is apparent but at what is not apparent - to the point where what is not apparent to others becomes apparent to the men and women who are pursuing God and His ways and His Word. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians Chapter 4, we are looking not at the visible but the invisible, for the visible is temporal while the invisible is eternal.

God through Isaiah paints a bleak picture of Judah and Jerusalem, He paints a picture that few people saw, a picture that most people rejected when they heard it. Isaiah was in the minority but he was not afraid to speak God’s Word and live according to that Word.

What do we see today? As we read Isaiah Chapter One, are there similarities between what Isaiah saw and what we see in our nation, in the world?

Oh God, help us to see as You see, and to live according to Your Word in Jesus Christ.

Isaiah - "Anomie" (1)

Isaiah has been a “go-to”place for me as long I can remember, and while I take great comfort in the explicit Messianic prophecies, and in the panoramic sweep of restoration particularly found in Chapters 40 - 66, I have also been acutely aware of God’s judgment on nations as it is portrayed throughout the ministry of this great prophet. If, as Paul wrote, “...all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Cor. 10:11), then I think we have Biblical warrant to look for Christ in the Law and the Prophets and the Writings (Luke 24:27, 44 - 49), and to look for how God deals with His People throughout generations and to discern how He deals with nations and governments.

The Apocalypse (the book of Revelation) is so filled with images and narratives from what we call the Old Testament that it can hardly be appreciated without being at home in the Law, Prophets, and Writings. We might say that God’s purpose in His People and His judgment among the nations is transposed from the earth to the heavens in the Apocalypse, that the veil is removed from our minds and hearts and we begin to see the naked reality and force of the Almighty, the glory of the Lamb, the destiny of His People, and the judgment of nations.

God has formed a new-creation corporate man in Christ (Ephesians 2:11 - 22) and is establishing His Temple; Jerusalem above is our mother (Galatians 4:21 - 31). Yet, while His People are being formed into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29; Ephesians 4:13; Colossians 1:28), God’s righteous judgment of nations, governments, and peoples is also being worked out - what we consider “human events” have both an “unseen” and a Divine element in them and they are not the same; for all that is invisible is not Divine, as Paul writes (Ephesians Chapter Six), we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood. We are assured that a time will come when the kingdoms of the earth will cease and God’s Kingdom alone will fill the earth (Daniel Chapter Two; Revelation 11:15 - 18).

While the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world have two destinies, they are destinies that bump up against each other, indeed, that are in a life and death conflict - they are destinies without compromise, and when there is compromise the children of light are always diminished. One deathly compromise is when the children of the Kingdom of God act and think like the children of the nations of the earth, when they confuse their identity and citizenship (Philippians 2:12 - 18; 3:17 - 4:1). As Jesus points out, no one can serve two masters.

We see from Genesis to Malachi that God holds nations accountable. While the people of Judah and Israel take center historical stage in the Old Testament, there are many supporting nation-actors, from the scattered people groups of Genesis to the mighty empires of the Major and Minor Prophets. God through the prophets not only held Israel and Judah accountable, He held many other nations accountable - and as we witness in the Apocalypse, He continues to do so.    

Nations, their governments, and their peoples are accountable to God; as is the Church - both the professing church and the remnant within that church. Just as not all Israel is Israel (Romans 9:6), so not all of the church is the church (consider the Seven Letters in Revelation Chapters 2 - 3 and the various false teachers the apostles encountered elsewhere in the NT).

I have said all of this to say that when we read the prophets that we ought to do our best to understand the historical setting, that we ought to look for Christ and receive Him (for He comes to us in and through His Word), and that we ought to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal God and His ways to us - for His character and His essence, His Person, is unchanging. If we understand the ways of God in the Old Testament, we can discern (by His grace) the ways and workings of God in our own times. God held nations accountable centuries ago, He holds nations accountable today. He held the nation of Israel accountable centuries ago, He holds the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16) accountable today.

Marketplace Reflections (15)

Forgiveness (3)

More than once someone has said to me, “I don’t share about Jesus at work because I am so imperfect. I say things I shouldn’t say, sometimes I do things I shouldn’t do.”

I’m reminded of what St. John Chrysostom said in his 20th Homily on Acts, “Nothing can be more chilling than the sight of a Christian who makes no effort to save others. Neither poverty, nor humble station, nor bodily infirmity can exempt men and women from the obligation of this great duty. To hide our light under pressure of weakness is as great an insult to God as if we were to say that He could not make His sun to shine.” The Great Commission is also a Great Commandment, we are called to make disciples...which, when you think about it, goes much farther than proclaiming the Good News - we don’t just speak to others and leave it at that, we are called to make disciples and teach them to obey all that Christ has commanded us (Matthew 28:18 - 20).

I think that there are few opportunities to witness at work that are as powerful as asking another person for forgiveness. To do this requires that we humble ourselves before God and before others, it requires that we acknowledge our wrong, it requires that we trust God for the results. In a society filled with vitriol and the equivalent of MAD (mutual assured destruction) in relationships, the Christian who seeks peace and reconciliation shows the world a better way. This is  an act of obedient faith, and it is also a choice not to compound the wrong and sin by ignoring it or justifying it. The more we justify our sin the harder our heart and conscience become and the greater distance we create between ourselves and others...not to mention relational between ourselves and God.

In asking forgiveness we must not minimize what we have done, nor should we acquiesce when others seek to minimize it. We should not accept it when someone says, “Oh, that’s ok,” concerning a wrong we have done - it is not okay.

I recall losing my patience and speaking sarcastically to one of my managers over the telephone. After the call, as I pondered what had transpired, I realized that I was wrong, that I had not treated her with respect, that I had been inconsiderate. When I called her back and apologized and asked her to forgive me she said, “Oh, that’s ok.”

I said, “No, it’s not ok for me to talk to you like that and I’m asking for your forgiveness.”

You see, in our society people often talk to each other in hurtful ways, to the point that some people think they deserve to be talked to disrespectfully. I knew that this woman had been in relationships characterized by disrespect and that her sense of identity had been shattered; I had even been working with her to think Biblically about herself in Christ - the last thing she needed was for me reinforce old patterns. I needed her to acknowledge that I had sinned against her for both our sakes.

Another example I’ve shared over the years occurred when I was CFO of a firm. I got into a heated phone argument with a commercial tenant and we loudly hung up on each other. As soon as I slammed the receiver down I knew I had sinned in my attitude and anger (yes, yes, I know there is godly anger but this wasn’t it). I immediately called the person back, apologized, and attempted to work out our differences. Then, after the second conversation I went out into the hallway and walked up and down it, going into each office, apologizing for my heated conversation and actions which everyone had to have heard.

Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes it takes me a while to get the message that I was wrong. Once it took me a few weeks to realize I was wrong, and then I had to pray about how to seek reconciliation - for while the problem occurred over the phone, I knew that it couldn’t be repaired over the phone, it was too “high wire”. I invited the person to lunch, and drove about 90 minutes for the appointment. I apologized, the other person apologized, it was a good lunch and from that point on we had a good relationship.

I think that when others know we are followers of Christ, and when we take our discipleship seriously, that our testimony holds us accountable for our actions; it doesn’t mean that we always get things right, it doesn’t mean that we don’t have our selfish times, it certainly doesn’t mean we are perfect - but hopefully it does mean that when we sin, when we wrong others, when we are selfish; that we repent, ask forgiveness, and seek reconciliation. After all, our lives are to be about Jesus Christ and not about ourselves. We really do have a better way to live, a better way to share.

For myself, there have been times when asking forgiveness has been like walking off a cliff into air; but I’ve known that I needed to do it...and Christ has always been there for me, and He’ll be there for you too. We are called to faithful obedience, we are called to be agents of reconciliation.

Marketplace Reflections (14)

Forgiveness (2)

Paul writes to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 5:17 - 20):

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

Since God has placed the “word of reconciliation” within His people, His people are not only to share this “word” verbally, but they are to be the incarnation of that very word. In other words, it isn’t enough to talk about reconciliation, we are to demonstrate it, to live it; in our thoughts, our words, our actions.

If God is not counting our trespasses against us, what does that suggest about the way we should view others when they trespass against us? Consider these words of the Lord’s Prayer, “And forgive us our debts [tresspasses], as we also have forgiven our debtors [those who have trespassed against us.]”

Notice also who the active person is in the above Corinthian passage and who are the recipients of the action. God is the reconciler, man can receive but he can’t initiate. God places His word of reconciliation in us and we are to pass it on to others, even beg others to receive the reconciliation that God has provided. If God is the initiator of reconciliation in our relationship with Him, and if we have been sent as the Father sent the Son (John 17:18; 20:21), then when we experience alienation in a relationship whose responsibility is it to seek reconciliation?

Let us not forget these words of Paul (Romans 5:10), “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Whatever may be the situation between us and another person, it is impossible for it to be as adversarial as our relationship to God once was - for we were His enemies, we were sinners, and the price He paid to bring us back to Himself is beyond our comprehension - as is the gulf that once separated us from Him. Whatever gulf separates us from another person cannot be compared with the gulf that once separated us from God. Just as God took the initiative to bridge the chasm between us and Him, so are we to learn how to bridge the chasm between ourselves and others. There is perhaps no more difficult thing in the world to repair as a relationship.

Why is reconciliation between people so difficult? Often our pride gets in the way, our insistence that we were right and others were wrong. Our refusal to admit sin and error. Our fear of being vulnerable. Our fear of rejection and the pain that comes with it. Our fear that the other person will use our admission of wrong against us. Our fear that if we forgive someone that the person will take that as permission to wrong us again.

Of course living in a society that often places little value on relationships can be a problem, for others may not see what the big deal is. In a marketplace culture that views people as “resources” and not people, not individuals, not only do we not have time for others, we especially don’t have time to invest ourselves in repairing relationships - it isn’t cost effective...at least that’s how we may think.

However, the foregoing presents us with an opportunity to show others a better way to live, the way of Jesus Christ. We can model the word of reconciliation - both by forgiving others and by asking for forgiveness; we can learn to become the peacemakers that Jesus talked about in Matthew Chapter 5, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons [and daughters] of God.”

To be continued...

Marketplace Reflections (13)

Forgiveness

The standard for Christians in all things is Jesus Christ and His Word. This includes forgiving others as well as asking for forgiveness when we do things we ought not to do. Paul writes (Ephesians 4:32), “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.” We are to forgive just as we have been forgiven.

Considering how much time we spend at work, and considering how stressful work can be, and taking into account that most of us work with people -  coworkers, vendors, customers, and others - the likelihood that at some point someone is going to do something they shouldn’t do is pretty high. The likelihood that we ourselves are going to do something we shouldn’t do is also pretty high; I’m not talking about stealing or lying - though those things are included - I’m talking about what happens when human beings keep bumping up against one another in a fast-paced and closed environment, sooner or later we are going to say something we shouldn’t say in a way we shouldn’t say it, or do something without considering its effect on others, or just be plain selfish in our words and actions. What do we do when we do something wrong? What do we do when others do something wrong to us?

While the context of the above verse in Ephesians is the Body of Christ, in Matthew 6:14 Jesus says, “For if you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” So we are not only to practice forgiveness within the church, but we are to practice it toward all humanity. Forgiveness is to be a way of life for the follower of Jesus Christ, including life in the workplace.

Of course this is complex and the dynamics can be many-layered, but what better environment to learn the Way of Jesus? After all, this is about learning to live by His life and not our own, this is about considering ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, this is about being on the Potter’s wheel and the Holy Spirit transforming us into the image of Jesus Christ. Unless we are looking to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, it isn’t likely we will progress far with forgiveness as a way of life. We can focus on ourselves, we can focus on others, or we can focus on Jesus and His Word. In one sense this is an issue of obedience, and if we can’t get beyond that then at the very least we must confront the command of Christ to forgive, and we must reckon with the fact that if we choose not to forgive that we then choose to sin - we do not get a pass because of circumstances. This is not to say that there aren’t times when this is a process, we are not robots and God doesn’t want us to pretend, but He does call us to exercise our will by His enabling grace and decide to forgive, whether we feel like it or not.

This is also not to say that others are not held accountable, nor is it to say that we become people without definition and the equivalent of floor mats; and it most certainly does not mean that “what you did is okay, please do it again.” However, if we are followers of Jesus Christ then we belong to Him, we are His property if you will - this is why Paul styled himself a slave belonging to Jesus Christ. Many things in life become straightforward when the issue of identity is settled, if our identity is in Christ then our obedience must be in Christ, we are not our own, we are bought with a price - the blood of the Lamb.

Jesus prayed on the Cross, “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they do.” Sometimes people know just what they are doing and sometimes they don’t. This is true of my own life, when I look back and see things I’ve done it can be as if I were looking at someone else’s life. Even though God has forgiven me of past sin, I still live with the memory and consequences - this is my journey, yours may be different. My point is that when others do wrong to us that they may have no idea what they are doing. I think even when others are deliberate and hurtful and aware of their actions, that in one sense they still don’t know because they have been blinded by the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:3 - 4; Ephesians 4:17 - 19). To be sure we are all accountable to God, and our habits and disciplines and ways of life reinforce the direction we are going - we are either cultivating life and light or we are cultivating death and darkness; but only God can judge righteously, only God knows the heart and soul and mind of a man or woman. There is a particular freedom in entrusting ourselves and others to God.

We ought to be afraid not to forgive. We ought to fear unforgiveness the way we might fear ingesting poison; if we wouldn’t knowingly ingest poison, if we wouldn’t use poison to flavor our coffee or tea, why would we flavor our lives with unforgiveness? Unforgiveness is an invasive weed whose roots wind their way deep into our souls, sucking the life out of us and poisoning our hearts and minds, influencing our actions, and affecting those around us. Once the tentacles of unforgiveness twist their way around and into our soul it is difficult to extract them, removing invasive weeds can be sorrowful work. How much better to learn the way of Christ, the way of forgiveness, and to allow the Holy Spirit to train us to forgive quickly - to learn forgiveness as a way of life.

A workplace can be poisoned with unforgiveness, it can be a toxic environment. The followers of Christ are called to show the workplace a better way.

To be continued...

Clark Coughlin

This morning I learned that my friend and mentor Clark Coughlin went to be with Jesus - this is a loss for me, one that I deeply feel. I first met Clark about 18 years ago when we lived in Becket, MA. Clark and his wife, Joy, lived in CT, and I was introduced to Clark through a mentoring program supported by Vision New England. While we lived in Becket I usually drove down to Winsted, CT once a month to have breakfast with Clark - we’d spend a couple of hours together as Clark listened to me, asked questions, and carefully shared insights and things for me to ponder. We always concluded with a time of prayer.

After we moved back to VA Clark and I continued our friendship with phone calls every month or two; the pattern was very much the same - his listening, asking questions, sharing insights, and of course prayer. During the last few years I was able to play the role of encourager as Clark faced medical issues and as his strength steadily deteriorated; I felt honored to be able to encourage a man who had been so faithful to me and other pastors.

When I met Clark he had retired from the priesthood (Episcopal) and embarked on a ministry of mentoring pastors in New England. He was thoughtful, funny, and quite the showman, playing the banjo and ukulele with groups, and participating in cabaret shows in their retirement community. I don’t know how the other pastors he mentored felt, but I suspect their feelings were similar to mine; I could be transparent with Clark, I could trust him, and he was worthy of my deep affection, love, and respect.

While Clark was 16 years older than me, in maturity, thoughtfulness, and reflection he was much older. I am a little older now than he was when I met him, but there is no comparison in terms of maturity, he had qualities that I can only hope that I’ll emulate someday - patience, forbearance, longsuffering, charity. Sometimes I wish that he had been more direct with me because I wasn’t smart enough to always understand what he was saying - I’d like to be able to tell him that I am finally “getting” some of what he shared with me. I also feel like I let him down a time or two, but I don’t want to unpack that right now - I know I must have disappointed him one time in particular, I was really an ass about something that he sent my way and I didn’t honor him the way I should have - he was more than charitable about it.

The last time I saw Clark and Joy was around 2008 during a trip to Gordon-Conwell. I stopped and spent the night with them on my way to the Boston area.

Well, I’ve lost two men lately who greatly influenced my life, George Will (who I’ve written about from time to time on my blog Kaleidoscope), and now Clark. George was an influence in my younger years, and Clark during the present season of life. Clark was with me during highs and lows, always encouraging, always thoughtful, always steady. I miss him already; but I’ll continue to learn from him as I reflect on his life, our our times together, on our many conversations, on our times of prayer. Clark was a friend - in every sense of the word. A mentor, in the best sense of the word. And a priest, a true priest - that’s a lot for me to be thankful for.

Coughlin, Reverend Clark F.
The Reverend Clark F. Coughlin, 84, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, November 8, 2017 in Bloomfield. He was born in Holyoke, MA, to Patrick and Edna (Wilkinson) Coughlin. He received his Bachelor of Science at Quinnipiac University; Master of Divinity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Episcopal Divinity School in Boston. Some of his hobbies included playing the banjo and ukulele, Barbershop singing, golf and duplicate bridge. He started his career as an Industrial Engineer and in 1980 he was ordained an Episcopal Priest. He served as the Assistant Rector at Christ Church, Watertown, CT from 1980-1983, and then from 1983-2001 was the Rector at St. James Episcopal Church, Winsted, CT. Father Coughlin made it possible for the Open Door Soup Kitchen to open at St. James Church, and it is still in operation today.

Reflections on Galatians 2:20 (9)

“I I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.

“...who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

When I was a young Christian I used to hear people say, “If you had been the only person on earth Jesus would have come and died for you.” It sounded nice, and I even said it to others, but there were times I wondered if it were really true - would Jesus have really died on the Cross if I were the only person on earth? I could easily tell others how much Jesus loved them, but I found it hard to believe that He really loved me (I still struggle with that at times).

Then one night about 15 years ago I was watching and listening to an ALPHA video presentation by Nikki Gumbel in our church dining hall. I wasn’t doing much on that ALPHA course, and was mainly there to provide encouragement to the people who were leading it for our parish - so I was pretty relaxed and enjoying the ride. Among the Scriptures that Nikki was reading was Galatians 2:20. I love Galatians 2:20, it is a foundation stone of my thinking and (I hope) my life, it integrates what I consider the critical elements of the Gospel, including how we are to live. I can’t count the times I’ve read Galatians 2:20 and quoted it and talked about it.

But that night, as Nikki Gumbel read Galatians 2:20,  I “heard” something that I had never heard before, I heard the word “me”, and not just once but twice. “...who loved ME and gave Himself for ME.” I almost jumped out of my seat, my soul was filled with excitement, my heart leaped, and my mind was on fire - Paul knew that Jesus loved HIM and gave Himself for HIM - and I realized that Paul’s ME could be my ME, in fact it was my ME, not once but twice. Jesus loved me and He gave Himself for me. Yes, had I been the only person on earth Jesus really would have come and loved me and died for me. Oh my, what a thought, what a reality, it was all I could do to contain myself that evening.

Galatians 2:20 is about the love of God in Christ, as is the Gospel. I am crucified with Christ because God loves me and provided a way from death to life through death on the Cross. Nevertheless I live, God knew me before the creation of the world, He designed me, and in Christ He restores His image in me. Yet not I but Christ lives in me, through the love of God I have been brought into union with Jesus Christ, into an intimate relationship. I live by the faith of the Son of God, Jesus lives in me and through me, His life is in me and I am learning to dance with Him. Miracle of miracles, Jesus loved ME and gave Himself for Me.

Jesus loves you too...oh how He loves YOU too! And if you were the only person on earth Jesus would have come and died for you...for that is just how much God loves YOU!

I am reminded of the chorus:

“Oh how He loves you and me, oh how He loves you and me.

He gave His life, what more could He give.

Oh how He loves you. Oh how He loves me.

Oh how He loves you and me.”

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Reflections on Galatians 2:20 (8)

“I I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and give Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.

“...I live by the faith of the Son of God…”

I’m going to ask you to bear with me on this reflection, which may have multiple postings. I beg your forbearance because this statement, “I live by the faith of the Son of God,” has been burned into my soul as with a branding iron, and yet I realize that not everyone will agree with it. Whether you agree with it now, or will agree with it later, or in terms of this verse will never agree with it - the Scriptures teach its reality and if this passage in Galatians does not support the statement we can be assured that the Bible as a whole does.

The central question is, “How do we live?” Or, “By whose life do we live?” Another question is whether our faith is centered on ourselves and our actions or centered on Christ and His actions.

To the best of my knowledge the only English translation that reads “by the faith of the Son of God” is the King James Version. Every other translation I’ve consulted reads “by faith in the Son of God.” In the latter we are exercising our faith and the Son of God is the object of our faith; in the former the faith of the Son of God is how we are living - the emphasis is Christ living in us and through us. In the latter the focus is what we are doing, in the former it is what Christ is doing.

How do we live? By whose life do we live?

For the reader who is asking, “Isn’t this just a matter of properly translating from Greek?” The basic answer is “no”. There are at least two lines of thought on the translation, perhaps more. The Greek words can be translated as an “objective genitive” or as a “subjective genitive”. “By faith in” is objective - “faith” has an object (the Son of God). “By the faith of” is subjective - here the Son of God is the acting subject of “the faith”. Now do you see why I asked you to bear with me?

What is one to do? One is to look at the context.

Paul is essentially saying throughout Galatians, including in our immediate context, “Not I but Christ.” As Richard B. Hayes puts it, “In Gal. 2:20 Paul is provocatively denying his own role as the acting “subject” of his own life and claiming that he has been supplanted in this capacity by Christ: “the faith of the Son of God” is now the governing power in Paul’s existence...The whole context portrays Christ as the active agent and Paul as the instrument through which and/or for whom Christ’s activity comes to expression.” [The Faith of Jesus Christ - The Narrative Substructure of Galatians 3:1 - 4:11 Second Edition, by Richard B. Hays, pages 154, 155. Hayes is professor of NT at Duke Divinity School].

Hayes quotes British theologian M.D. Hooker in his introduction, “Paul presents redemption in Christ as a radical restructuring of human nature: it is in effect a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). Christ became what we are in order that we might become what he is.” Hooker goes on to write that the faith of Jesus Christ should be understood as “a concentric expression, which begins, always, from the faith of Christ himself, but which includes, necessarily, the answering faith of believers, who claim that faith as their own.”

How do we live? By whose life does the Christian live? In John 15:1 - 11 Jesus is clear that “apart from Me you can do nothing.” As we abide in the Vine we live, we live by His life, we live by His faith.

The phrase and image of  “in Christ” permeates the New Testament, as does the image of Christ in us, His people. Our brethren in Eastern Orthodoxy are comfortable with this Incarnational perspective while many of us in the West stumble over it. Some of us in the West accuse those who embrace this perspective of pietism, using the word sadly as a pejorative...which I have never understood. Thankfully most all Christian traditions, Protestant and Roman Catholic, and of course the East, have had those who have preserved this testimony. But of course this is more than a “perspective”, it is (or should be) a way of life, Jesus Christ should be living in us and through us - after all, the Trinity has come to live within us (John Chapters 13 - 17).

We preach the new birth one minute and deny it the next, we teach that we are new creations at 11:10 on Sunday and then at 11:35 deny it, preaching and teaching and acting as if the new birth never happened with a focus on who we were rather than who we are in Jesus Christ. Having begun in the Spirit we seek perfection by the flesh (Galatians 3:3). We teach that our minds are to be renewed (Romans 12:1-2) and then proceed to ignore Romans 5:12 - 8:39 and Galatians 2:20. Why can we not see the inherent contradiction in preaching the new birth one minute and then denying the reality of the life of Christ in us the next? What are we afraid of?

The message of Galatians 2:20 is “Not I but Christ” and that context strongly suggests  that the best translation is “by the faith of the Son of God”.

I cannot live the Christian life...and with all respect, neither can you...but Jesus Christ can and will live it in us and through us...Christ is our Life (Colossians 3:4).

Reflections on Galatians 2:20 (7)

“I I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and give Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.

“...and the life which I now live in the flesh…”

Our first impression may be that we can skip over these words, after all, we all know that we are living in the flesh, in a body; we all know we are covered with skin. But perhaps we should remind ourselves of this, perhaps we are so familiar with our skin that we don’t give it much thought, unless of course we have a problem with it, then it demands our attention. Even the most vain among is limited to how often we look in the mirror and see our skin, and we can only spend so long examining our hands throughout the day.

I note that the NASB, the ESV, and the NKJ all translate the Greek word “sarx” as “flesh”; while the NIV, LLT, CEV, and Holman use the word “body”. While there is an argument for translating “sarx” as “body”, my sense is that “flesh” is straightforward and puts us in touch with the physicality of our frail temple. When the authors of the Bible use sarx I like “flesh” - we can wrestle with what they meant. If they use “soma” then let’s go with “body”. Don’t get hung up on this, but since it is part of my meditation on this passage I share it.

Well, we have skin; ancient tents were made of skin. We live in skin. So Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:1, “For we know that if our earthly house of the tent is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”  The italics represent a more literal translation than we’ll find in English translations, which because of its unwieldiness in English is understandable.

Paul then goes on to write, “For indeed in this [house] we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent [remember, tents made of skin - my note] we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge [or down payment].”

We’re living inside flesh, inside skin, inside tents. One day those in a relationship with Jesus Christ will exchange skin for a heavenly body, a body from God; no more skin to live in, no more tent; something new, something different. Within us right now we have the down payment from God, the pledge from God, that the heavenly house is a sure thing, for the Holy Spirit lives in us. Jesus came and lived in a tent of skin, now the Holy Spirit comes and lives in tents of skin - your skin, my skin - it doesn’t make any difference what color our tents are, what matters is that the Holy Spirit lives in them. If your skin doesn’t have the Holy Spirit living inside it’s time to invite Jesus Christ into your life, into your tent - then you can enjoy the promise and assurance that you’ve got a great place to go when your skin calls it quits and decomposes. The house that God wants us to live in is better than any the American Dream can produce. If you knew the house or apartment that you’re living in today is going to fall down tomorrow wouldn’t you look for another place to live?

Oh, and by the way, do you really think you are an accident of time plus matter plus chance? Do you really think that time plus matter plus chance can generate love and hope and desire and beauty and music and art? Here’s a housing tip, the skin we live in, the tent, isn’t going to be here forever. Forget plastic surgery, focus on the long term, you are more than a pretty face, you are a man or woman or young person created in the image of God...and God loves you passionately and wants the best for you, and the best for you begins with a relationship with His Son Jesus Christ.

What’s the new house in the heavens going to look like? Paul discusses this in his first letter to the Corinthians, here is a sample from Chapter 15:

“That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own...There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power...Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.”

Where are you going when you leave your skin? It is going to happen - what’s the plan?

Back to Galatians 2:20, Paul acknowledges that right now he is living in a tent of skin; he has already told us that Christ is living in the tent with him, and next he is going to tell us some more about how he lives in his tent of skin. How are we living in our tents? Are we taking care of them? Is Jesus living inside our tents with us? Are we ready to leave this tent when the time comes? Has the Holy Spirit come into our tents with the down payment, making our house in the heavens a done deal, a sure thing, a certain promise from God?

Jesus came to deliver us from the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14 - 15) and bring us eternal life; He came to call us home to our Father.

People can work all of their lives for the American Dream home...but then fire comes, or floods, or earthquakes, or war...and if none of those things happen...eventually death will come...it’s only a matter of time...and then we’re leaving the skin….then what?