Bonhoeffer's Discipleship Part II - Reflections (9)

 

 

“It is we who are crucified with him and who die with him…Jesus thus brings humanity not only into death with him, but also into the resurrection” (page 196).

 

“How then do we come to participate in this body of Christ who did all this for us? For this much is certain: there is no community with Jesus Christ other than the community with his body!” (page 196).

 

Bonhoeffer then writes that we share in the koinonia of the Body of Christ through the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and makes the statement that, “Sacraments exist only because there is a Body of Christ” (page 197). Baptism brings us into the Body and the communion table keeps us in relationship with the Body.

 

I want to again caution us to be patient with Bonhoeffer, for until we have traversed the ground on which he is taking us, we are not likely to begin to understand what he is saying, his vision is farther and deeper and broader than most of us have experienced. If we have a nonsacramental view of baptism and communion, it is just possible that we have much to learn. If we have a sacramental view of communion and baptism, it is also possible that we have much to learn. In both instances our cut and dried positions may be our prisons. I think I can say with assurance that if we think we see the entire picture regarding baptism and communion that we have a lot to learn; I doubt that it is possible to see the entire picture of either one, for to see the entire picture is to see the entire Christ. We can swim in this ocean, but we cannot comprehend this ocean.

 

If we will read the Bible passages that Bonhoeffer quotes and references, if we will read all of the passages in context that reference and allude to baptism and the Lord’s Table (and I think we have the opportunity to continually discover these texts on this pilgrimage), then I think we will see…if we are honest…that there is indeed great mystery in Christ in these sacraments, paradigms, dimensions of koinonia. For sure this honesty will create heartburn in those who insist on neat and tidy propositional and doctrinal statements that are limiting rather than liberating (and doctrine should be liberating!), but we can trust Christ and His Spriit to care for us on this pilgrimage. Yes? I think so.

 

Bonhoeffer wants us to understand that as we “receive the community of the body of Christ” (page 197) that the terms “with Christ,” “in Christ,” and “Christ in us,” will have clear meaning for us. I would add that these terms and the reality within them become our Way of Life in Christ Jesus and with one another.

 

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are seen as events which “involve all human beings (Rom. 5:18ff; 1 Cor. 15:22; 2 Cor. 5:14)” (page 197).

 

Here is a list of passages that Bonhoeffer quotes and lists on the bottom of page 197 and the top of 198:

 

Rom. 6:8; Col. 2:20; Rom. 6:6; Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12; Rom. 6:5; Rom. 6:8; Eph. 2:5; Col. 2:12 (again); 2 Tim. 2:11; 2 Cor. 7:3; Rom. 2:12; 3:19; 7:5; 8:3, 8, 9; 2 Cor. 10:3; 1 Cor. 15:22.

 

He writes of those who know Christ, “With their entire existence and throughout all expressions of their life they are henceforth “in Christ”” (page 198).

 

I hope we see that Bonhoeffer is grounding his message in the Bible. As foreign as what he writes may be to us, he is not saying anything that isn’t grounded in the Word of God. Note that he is viewing Scripture as a whole, he is not basing his message on a verse here or there, but rather on an integrated vision of Jesus Christ and His Body as seen through many facets of the Bible.

 

Bonhoeffer shows us the forest first, and then the trees. He shows us how the patterns of trees and groups of trees make up the forest. Let us not be so foolish as to think our patches of woodland are all there is; the Body is expansive, transcendent, and ever growing up into Him.

 

“Everything we have said thus far may be summed up in the phrase: Christ is “for us” (page 198). This is what Bonhoeffer wants us to know, that Jesus Christ came for us, lived for us, died for us – bearing not only our sins, but ourselves, bearing us as individuals and us as humanity – that he died for us, was buried for us, and that He rose and ascended for us – and that we were with Him in all of this.

 

Is this not what Paul writes in Romans 8:31? “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”

 

“Paul can describe the miracle of Christ’s incarnation in an almost infinite variety of perspectives” (page 198).

 

As I read this statement, I want to emblazon it in the mind of every Christian, print it in every small group booklet, and paste it on every pulpit. One difference between an infant in Christ and an adult is that an adult realizes the truth of Bonhoeffer’s statement, while an infant or adolescent is convinced that its parochial perspective is all there is to know, and most certainly all there is to believe, teach, and preach.

 

Not only is there an almost infinite variety of Biblical perspectives on the incarnation, but when we understand the comprehensiveness of the Incarnation, the same is true of the Cross, the Atonement, the Resurrection, the Ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the Church of Jesus Christ. Now for sure, all of these perspectives radiate from Jesus Christ, display Jesus Christ, and glorify Jesus Christ; they are all from, through, and to Jesus Christ.

 

If Jesus Christ is God, which He is, and if God is infinite, then knowing Him and growing in Him, as individuals and as His People, is never-ending. The nature of the Bible is divinely infinite. The Bible displays Jesus Christ in unending dimensions, showing forth His beauty, drawing us deeper into Him – as individuals and as His People – if we will look for Him, seek Him, and allow Him.

 

Jesus says that what the Father has is His, and that the Holy Spirit will disclose to us what the Father has given Him. What the Father has belongs to Jesus, what Jesus has belongs to us (John 16:12 – 15), we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17, 32). Surely this is a never-ending experience.

 

Bonhoeffer is illustrating, with his many Biblical references, what he means when he writes of Paul’s “almost infinite variety of perspectives.” This can be uncomfortable for those of us who are accustomed to narrow views and rote statements on the Incarnation and Atonement.

 

I would love to ask a small group, “Please share some facets of the Incarnation. Please share some dimensions of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. How do you participate in the Incarnation on a daily basis? How do you participate in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as a way of life?” (You might want to mediate on Galatians 2:20 and 6:14).

 

If our people can’t respond to these questions, what does that say?

 

What is my answer to these questions?

 

What is your answer?

 

How would our congregations respond to these questions?

 

Editorial Note: If you are carefully reading Bonhoeffer, I will mention that there are some things I do not quite see as Bonhoeffer does, however I very much agree with his central thrust, vision, and message. I would love to chat with him about a statement or two to better understand what he means, but alas he isn’t available. Any quotes are statements I endorse, unless I make qualifying comments. I have chosen not to draw attention, as a rule, to the occasional point on which we may differ in order not to distract from the beauty of Bonhoeffer’s message of Christ and the Body, the Church, the Bride, the Temple. After all, the material is dense enough without me adding tangents.

Heavenly Mindedness (5)

 

Reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10:

 

This is the goodly company of patriarchs and prophets and saints, who endured the reproach of Christ, of whom the world was not worthy, who form the line of succession through which the promises passed, who now compose the cloud of witnesses that encompass our mortal strife, men of whom God is not ashamed to be called their God, with whom the Savior Himself is associated as the leader and finisher of the same faith. G. Vos

 

 Vos speaks of “the cloud of witnesses that encompass our mortal strife”. What does he mean? Of course this is a reference to Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us…” This is one of those mysteries that we can experience but cannot, I think, articulate very well because it is beyond natural experience. It is in keeping with Hebrews 12:22 -24, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…”

 

We “have” a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us; we “have come” to Mount Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem”. While there is undoubtably a more complete experience of these things yet to come, the Scripture is clear that this is also to be our present experience.

 

If we read Hebrews, and indeed the Bible, as primarily history, we will miss the invitation of salvation and of communion with God and the saints. If we fail to know what we call the Old Testament, we will fail to enjoy the company of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in our present pilgrimage. Why speak and sing of the “communion of saints” if we do not desire to experience this transcendent communion?

 

In Vos’s message, The Wonderful Tree, based on Hosea 14:8, he says concerning the union of God and man, “There is an inner sanctuary of communion, where all else disappears from sight, and the believer shut in with God gazes upon His loveliness…” Vos later speaks of a “sweet privacy and inwardness which forms the most precious possession of every pious soul.”

 

Later in The Wonderful Tree, Vos says, “And finally my hearers, from this falls some light upon the mystery that a finite creature can receive and possess the infinite God…when we try to resolve the figure into the thing itself, the reality grows so great and deep that it transcends our minds, and we must resign ourselves to an experience without understanding.”

 

Vos makes the point in The Wonderful Tree that, “There is even such as thing as worshipping one’s religion instead of one’s God.”

 

Now I want to carefully, I hope, tread on some ground on which I may be misunderstood.

 

Is it possible that we are worshipping our religion instead of our Lord Jesus Christ? Is it possible that we are more concerned with identifying with Paul, Apollos, or Cephas rather than with Jesus Christ (in the sense of 1 Cor. 1:12)? Do we realize the constraints, some subtle and some not, inherent in our adoption of religious and cultural paradigms that move beyond the Nicene Creed (that is, the Basic and Mere Christianity of our faith)?

 

I am not suggesting that we should not have distinctive expressions and understandings of our faith, but I am suggesting that if we are not aware of our propensity to allow these expressions and understandings to limit our Scriptural experience with the Trinity and communion with the saints – both the saints here and those who have gone before us – that we run the danger of closing ourselves off from growth in Christ and with one another.

 

I suppose we require some examples. In my pastoring, pulpit supply, and interim pastoring experience; as well as in my general experience with Christians, I have consistently found that church members often think of themselves as Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Assembly of God, and the like before they think of themselves as members of the Body of Christ – if they think of the Body of Christ at all. Not only that, but they often think of themselves as members of a group within a group – for instance, a sister in Christ recently told me not that she was just a Presbyterian, but that she was PCA.

 

If we allow this type of thinking to define us, which it usually does, then our perspectives on the Kingdom are necessarily limited and the possibilities of communing with saints on earth who have different flavors are lessened. If we cannot commune with the saints on earth, how can we possibility know communion with the saints who have gone before us? How can we possibly sense the great cloud of witnesses?

 

To take this another step; when we cut ourselves off from the historical life-flow of the Church of Jesus Christ, from the Apostolic and Church Fathers, and from those who lived for Christ and in Christ between then and today, we once again limit our openness to the communion of the saints for we (speaking to Protestants)  act as if the Church began during the Reformation, or during one of the times of renewal since the Reformation. Among other things, we fail to recognize that the Reformers were rooted in the Church Fathers as well as the Bible. While many of us may not hold to Apostolic Succession in terms of individual prelates, we should all hold to Apostolic Succession in terms of both doctrine and the manner in which doctrine was fashioned and articulated. When we cut ourselves off from Apostolic Succession in this latter sense, we limit our consciousness of the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us.

 

Then there are those who say, “I’m a New Testament Christian and I don’t need the Old Testament.” In addition to that being a heretical teaching worthy of Marcion, it once again cuts us off from the cloud of witnesses we see in Hebrews 12:1. Sadly, whether we say it or not, many of us live as if the Old Testament doesn’t matter – it isn’t likely that we can behold Jesus Christ in the New Testament if we don’t behold Him in the Old Testament – you might as well try to fly a plane with only one wing.

 

Let me return to a quote from Vos above, “And finally my hearers, from this falls some light upon the mystery that a finite creature can receive and possess the infinite God…when we try to resolve the figure into the thing itself, the reality grows so great and deep that it transcends our minds, and we must resign ourselves to an experience without understanding.”

 

While this may be troubling to the mind birthed from the Enlightenment, wedded to the natural man’s rationalization (see 1 Corinthians Chapter 2), what might we expect when we encounter the I AM THAT I AM? The man or woman who encounters the Holy One often has nothing to say, because there are places where words fail us. There are also encounters so sacred, so holy, that to speak of them is to profane them.

 

Of course, there are those who merchandise experiences and who make certain experiences the litmus test of fellowship and spirituality. This is childish at best, and heretical at worst. The Word of God in Christ is our standard, not our experience of that Word (in the sense in which I’m writing). Certainly, the Word is ever and always transformative, but its transformative work in me may not have the form that it has in you.

 

Above Vos speaks of an inner sanctuary of communion, do we respect this in one another, or do we insist, whether explicitly or implicitly, on conformity of experience? George MacDonald wrote of each one of us having a special place in God, and therefore a special and particular expression of our God – one that is for God’s glory and the blessing of others. Do we make it our goal to bring the best out of each other, which is who we are in Christ and who Christ is in us, or do we insist on caricaturing the communion of the saints into something created in our own image and our own tastes?

 

We are not called to journey on this pilgrimage alone. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, from whom we can gain strength and encouragement. Perhaps we cannot explain the fulness of this wonderful fellowship, perhaps we cannot explain any of it – but we are most assuredly called to experience it in our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The next time you receive the Bread and Wine, consider that in partaking of Christ you are partaking of His Body and of that Great Cloud of Witnesses.

Francis de Sales - Prayer (7)

This is the second of the two “notes” I want to make on the “fourth way” to prepare for prayer; the first note was on “imagination"; this one concerns the “Blessed Sacrament”.  Francis de Sales writes:

“The fourth way is simply to exercise your ordinary imagination, picturing the Saviour to yourself in His Sacred Humanity as if He were beside you just as we are wont to think of our friends, and fancy that we see or hear them at our side. But when the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar is there, then this Presence is no longer imaginary, but most real; and the sacred species are but as a veil from behind which the Present Saviour beholds and considers us, although we cannot see Him as He is.”

I was recently reading a book on prayer which recommended some Roman Catholic writers, with cautions. That is, after recommending the writers the author of the book wrote, in effect, “Now remember, Catholics believe such and such about this and that and we don’t believe those things.”

It seems to me that if we are going to mature as men and women in Christ and His Body, that at some point we ought to become secure enough, and knowledgeable enough, to dialogue with traditions within the Body that don’t see and understand things the way we do - without us feeling threatened. Why cannot we learn to understand others and to learn from others? There may be other traditions that have enriching Biblical perspectives. I admit, to my shame, that I have made the grave error of taking the word of others about what other movements and traditions believe within the Church, without actually reading original material from those traditions, or talking to others within those traditions. I have also made the error of thinking that traditions are monolithic, that everyone within a given tradition, even Roman Catholicism, sees things the same way – this of course is foolish. Perhaps we could argue that the more monolithic and uniform a tradition is, that the less thoughtful the people in that tradition are? (I write this within the context of Mere Christianity and the historic ancient creeds).

When Francis de Sales writes of the Blessed Sacrament, and of what I previously termed Presence with an upper case “P” – I hope it will give us all pause to consider our understanding of Communion, the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, the Lord’s Table, the Love Feast; whatever we are prone to call the breaking of the Bread and the sharing of the Cup.

It seems to me that the Scriptures portray Communion as a many-faceted diamond, the height and depth, and length and breath of which we can spend all of our lives exploring and beholding.

Matthew draws our attention to, “Take, eat; this is my body…Drink from it [the cup], all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant” (Matthew 26:26 – 30).

Mark shows us, “Take it, this is my body…This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” (Mark 14:22 – 26).

Then Luke, “This is my body which is given for you…This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:14 – 23).

Where do we have warrant to make anything of the Bread and the Cup which our Lord does not make? Why do we sometimes insist on pulling down to our natural understanding that which is a Divine mystery?

In Luke 22:19 and 1 Corinthians 11:24 we have the concept of celebrating Communion in “remembrance” – and yet the Greek word [anamnesis] translated as such means more than simply “remember”; quoting the entry in Kittel, there is an “active sense” which carries with it “that they actively fulfil the anamnesis’’ [the remembrance] when the Eucharist is celebrated.

While the Gospel of John does not contain an explicit account of the Last Supper, let’s recall that John has the washing of feet in the Upper Room which the Synoptics do not record, and let’s ponder John Chapter 6, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:56). If this was a “hard saying” then, let’s not be surprised that it is a hard saying now. Through all of this we are encountering dimensions which are above and beyond our comprehension, but which, nevertheless, we are called to participate in, to taste, to enjoy, and to live by. Let us not forget that we are called to be “partakers of the Divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).

We see in 1 Corinthians 10:16 – 17, “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing [koinonia] in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing [koinonia] in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

Here we have the mystery of John Chapter 6 and of 1 Corinthians Chapter 12:12, “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.” As Augustine says, “As is the Head, so is the Body.”

When we partake of the Loaf and the Cup, we partake of Christ and, in Christ, we partake of one another. We are one Bread in Jesus Christ. When we participate in the Lord’s Table we ought to be careful lest we “be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord…not discerning the body rightly” (1 Cor. 11:27 – 32). Yes, I may not rightly discern the Head of the Body; but I also may not discern the members of the Body – I cannot rightly do one if I do not the other; any more than I can say “I love God” if I hate my brother.

Francis de Sales shows a respect and reverence for the “Blessed Sacrament” that we seem to have lost – no matter our tradition. Francis lived sacramentally, seeing all of life as a many – faceted sacrament; perhaps it isn’t too much to suggest that his sacramental understanding was anchored in the Presence (with an upper case “P”) of the Blessed Sacrament.

Pondering Proverbs 10:3

“Yahweh will not allow the soul of the righteous to hunger, but He will reject the craving of the wicked.” Proverbs 10:3

Our economy is based on craving and would collapse without it. We are conditioned to crave. We condition our children to crave. Many of our churches are conditioned to crave. We want more, then more, then more. We think that if we have just a little more that we’ll be satisfied, but of course that is a mirage.

The more our souls consume of the things and values of this world the more they crave – we are obese with poison. God rejects these cravings. Yes, He will “give us up” to them, He will allow us to consume what we crave and to be turned into those very cravings – we will become what we crave and worship. That is a hideous picture, but it is beautiful to those who crave it – yet a Day will come when that beauty will turn to dust, when the hideousness of our idols will be revealed for all to see.

The word we see the most in the Bible for these cravings is “lust” – and lust is styled as idolatry. We may not have idols in the sense that the ancient world had them, ours are more sophisticated – our images tend to be those which have been marketed to us. We open our wallets and pay homage to the idols. We open our minds and hearts and invite the idols to live within us. We raise our children as offerings to the idols.

And as for our children, like fools we then boast about what good jobs we have done in raising them in the image of the idols…conforming our children to the values and desires of the idols of wealth, prosperity, influence, fame, materialism, and pleasure.

The cravings of the wicked are never satisfied. We were not created to desire these cravings. We were not created to be conformed to them. We were not created to be their dwelling places. We consume them and they consume us.

Yet the soul of the righteous will not hunger. Now here is a healthy tension. While it will not hunger it will hunger, for our Lord Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” So we hunger but we don’t hunger. Those who have tasted that Christ is good want more of Him, and the more we have of Him the more we want.

Yet again, in the Incarnate Son of God we see that His food is to do His Father’s will (John 4:31 – 34). And who is the Righteous but our Lord Jesus Christ?

Jesus Christ says, “My soul has become troubled…” (John 12:27). “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38).

When we are one with Jesus Christ we are one with the Righteous One and we participate in the Incarnation. Christ lives in us and we live in Christ; He lives out His pilgrimage in us and we live out our pilgrimage in Him.

The Father will not allow the soul of the Righteous One to hunger. We hunger for our Lord Jesus and in Him we find rest and food, the Bread of Life and Living Water. We hunger for more, we hunger to see Him more clearly. We hunger to taste the Bread of Life more deeply, for our palates to become more sensitive to Him, to enjoy and discern the taste of our Lord Jesus, the true Manna from heaven.

The fact that our souls hunger speaks to us of Someone greater than we are. The fact that we have desires to fulfill speaks to us of the transcendent, of that which is greater than ourselves. Our bodies hunger because they need food. Our souls hunger because they need their own food. The question for us is which table we choose to eat at – if we eat at the table of the Wicked we will never be satisfied.

If we eat at the Table which our Good Shepherd has prepared for us, if we partake of His body and His blood – of His life – we will know the joy of tasting that the Lord is good, we will know the satisfaction of living in the deep love and grace and mercy of the True and Living God.

No matter what our circumstance, our kind and gracious heavenly Father desires to feed our souls; He gives us His Son Jesus Christ and in Christ we will never hunger without being fed.

Seeking the Face of God

This are Augustine’s closing remarks on Psalm 38:

“Depart not from me. Make haste to help me, Lord of my salvation” (ver. 22). This is that very “salvation,” Brethren, concerning which, as the Apostle Peter saith, “Prophets have enquired diligently,” and though they have enquired diligently, yet have not found it. But they searched into it, and foretold of it; while we have come and have found what they sought for. And see, we ourselves too have not as yet received it; and after us shall others also be born, and shall find, what they also shall not receive, and shall pass away, that we may, all of us together, receive the “penny of salvation in the end of the day,” with the Prophets, the Patriarchs, and the Apostles. 

For you know that the hired servants, or labourers, were taken into the vineyard at different times; yet did they all receive their wages on an equal footing. Apostles, then, and Prophets, and Martyrs, and ourselves also, and those who will follow us to the end of the world, it is in the End itself that we are to receive everlasting salvation; that beholding the face of God, and contemplating His Glory, we may praise Him forever, free from imperfection, free from any punishment of iniquity, free from every perversion of sin: praising Him; and no longer longing after Him, but now clinging to Him for whom we used to long to the very end, and in whom we did rejoice, in hope. For we shall be in that City, where God is our Bliss, God is our Light, God is our Bread, God is our Life; whatever good thing of ours there is, at being absent from which we now grieve, we shall find in Him. 

In Him will be that “rest,” which when we “call to remembrance” now, we cannot choose but grieve. For that is the “Sabbath” which we “call to remembrance;” in the recollection of which, so great things have been said already; and so great things ought to be said by us also, and ought never to cease being said by us, not with our lips indeed, but in our heart: for therefore do our lips cease to speak, that we may cry out with our hearts." (Italics mine).

I am reminded of Psalm 27:8, “When You said, Seek My face, my heart said to You, Your face, O Yahweh, I shall seek.”

Also of Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

Ought we not to pray every morning, “O Father, teach me to seek Your face”? And should we not seek His face in our Lord Jesus Christ? Is it not in Christ that we see the glory of God unveiled?

  

When Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God”, do we realize that God is speaking? Do we see that our hearts are not only cleansed by Christ, but that when we see Christ that we see God? Christ cleanses our hearts so that we might see Him, and in seeing Him we see the Father (John 14:9).

I think of my friend and brother, George Will, who I first met in 1966 and who now is, I think, “with the Lord” for I have not heard from him for about three years and his phone is not in service – when I first met George, Hebrews 12:2 was constantly on his lips, “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith…”; as I spoke to him at varying intervals throughout the years “Looking unto Jesus” continued to be on his lips and in his heart – it was George’s North Star, the center of his life. Ought not “Looking unto Jesus” to be on our lips and in our hearts continually?

Ought we not to be seeking the face of God? Ought we not to be seeing “the glory of God in the face of Christ” throughout our lives? Ought this not to be our daily exercise, our way of living? Seeking the face of Christ in the morning, the afternoon, the evening, through the night?

Christ draws us to Himself, He reveals Himself to us, through all of life – through the Scriptures, through His Body, through creation, through circumstances, through our desires; He is continuing unveiling Himself and drawing us, preparing us for greater and more complete unveilings of Himself…preparing us for the Great and Glorious Day that Augustine writes about when we will behold the face of God in a glory that surpasses all that we can imagine – His face and His glory will overwhelm all of our desires – enveloping us in the glory of the Trinity.

John Chrysostom and Communion

Yesterday we celebrated the Eucharist, what a sacred and transcendent time with our Lord. The Table that Jesus prepares for us reaches back before time began, and will be our ever-present eternal meal, our Communion with Christ, with the Trinity, and with one another. During my message I shared the quote below, I hope it speaks to you. Even though Chrysostom was a bishop, he had little or no use for the pomp and circumstance of "silk vestments", this got him into serious trouble with those who used the church, and its close affiliation with Imperial power, for their own benefit. In fact, St. John suffered much hardship and persecution for his life in Christ and proclamation of the Gospel.

It is sad that we lack Chrysostoms today. Many seek their own benefit...few have the courage to seek and preach Christ.

Chrysostom:

Do you wish to honor the body of the Savior? Do not despise it when it is naked. Do not honor the church with silk vestments while outside you are leaving it number with cold and naked. He who said, “This is my body,” and made it so by his word, is the same that said, “You saw me hungry and you gave me no food. As you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.” Honor him then by sharing your property with the poor. For what God needs is not golden chalices but golden souls.”

Ponderings on 1 Corinthians Chapters 1 – 4: (5)

“For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.’

“Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Cor. 1:17 – 25).”

I embarked on the present reflections (chapters 1 – 4 of 1 Corinthians) because I was pondering 1 Corinthians Chapter 2, and as I meditated on Chapter 2 I considered its immediate context and saw the unity of the first four chapters of Paul’s letter. Even when we remind ourselves that chapters and verses were not in the original manuscripts, it can be awfully hard to move beyond the visual starts and stops of chapters and verses – it can be difficult to capture the flow and context of what we read; or better yet, to be captured by it.

Consider the connectivity of 1:17 with 2:4 - 5: “not in cleverness (wisdom) of speech, so that the Cross of Christ would not be made void” (1:17); “not in persuasive words of wisdom…so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (2:4 – 5).

There is division in the Corinthian church, and this division is the result of the Corinthians living as “mere men” (1 Cor. 3:3), they are “mere men” because they are living not in the Spirit, but as “men of flesh” (1 Cor. 3:1). The Gospel which Paul brought was not preached according to the wisdom of man, lest the Cross and its transforming power be nullified.

I think there is a tension here that we fail to confront. It is a tension that was not acknowledged in my seminary experience. Furthermore, I have never read about this tension in any preaching books or articles – I do not mean that no one has ever addressed the tension, I only mean that I have never read anything about the tension. This is the tension between effective communication and “the foolishness of the message” (of preaching). Christ crucified is “a stumbling block” and “foolishness” (1:23). Yet, effective communication means presenting the Gospel in such a way that our audience can understand it…at least understand enough to respond to it. Beyond that, this tension applies not only to the initial preaching of the Gospel, but to the life of the Church (2:6). Perhaps, with respect to Church-life, we have the same principle as found in Galatians 3:1-3, having begun in the Spirit do we now seek maturity in the flesh, in the natural? What is true of justification is also true of sanctification and glorification – we are either people of the Spirit or people of the “natural”.

We can be such well-trained communicators that we do not need the Holy Spirit – this is the tension. In fact, I don’t think we really need the Holy Spirit to do much of what we do, and perhaps we don’t need Him to do anything that we do because we can do what we do well. We have become pretty good sociologists and marketers and advertisers and…sad to say…at times entertainers. If we have a problem in the church we can hire a consultant or change leadership.

I wonder if our failure to share the Gospel is due in part to our buying into the wisdom of this age? After all, in marketing you certainly don’t want to turn the prospective customer off, you don’t want to offend the marketplace. Yet, the Gospel of the Christ of the Cross is foolishness, a stumbling block, and an offense. When we mitigate the Cross we deny the Christ of the Cross. Consider 1:27, the Gospel will “shame the wise…the strong”.

A counterweight to this is 1 Cor. 9:19 – 23 in which Paul writes that “I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.” So we are to use wisdom in communicating, and yet…it is not the wisdom of this world…for when we use the wisdom of this world the Cross of Christ is made of no effect (1:17). But do we really believe this?

Early on in my pastoral ministry I realized something that frightened me; I could prepare and deliver a pretty good sermon all on my own without God’s help. Why didn’t we discuss this in seminary? I am thankful for my training, but I also know that unless my training is transformed by the Cross that it is dangerous.

As I ponder 1 Corinthians chapters 1 – 4 I also wonder if I really believe what Paul is writing. I wonder if we really believe what Paul is saying…saying, I might add, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

During the past year or so I’ve been spending time in the Patristics, or Church Fathers; these are the orthodox writings of Christians who lived in the early centuries of Christianity. I have been excited about their sacramental and Christocentric encounter with Scripture – they looked for Jesus everywhere in the Bible, and in doing this they were being faithful to Jesus Himself – for Jesus revealed Himself through the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (see Luke 24). To the Church Fathers Jesus Christ was everything, and in this they mirrored the Apostles – consider 1 Cor. 1:30 – 31. They ate from a rich table while we eat frozen dinners. (As an example; Augustine’s vision of Christ and His Body in the Psalms is expansive, he “sees” the fulfillment of Christ’s prayer in John 17 – we are truly called to live in koinonia with the Trinity).

The Patristics had an intertextual experience with Scripture (that is, they incorporated the entire Bible into their thinking, their teaching, their writing – seeing it as an integrated whole displaying Christ) that is foreign to our experience. While they generally had due regard for history and linguistics, they wanted to see Christ above all, and in this desire they sought to be transposed from the earthly to the heavenly so that they might behold Jesus Christ and draw others to Him.  At the same time they could hold a thought, a line of exegesis, an argument, and work with it, explore it, and search it out – to a degree that causes our modern minds with their short attention spans to implode.

Many of them also suffered for Christ, both within and without the professing church – for heresy has always been with us and I suppose it will continue until our Lord Jesus returns. Theirs was a faith forged in pressure, often pain, and sometimes death.

Yet again, just as I became aware that I could preach a pretty good sermon without the Holy Spirit, I also became aware that I could do some decent “Bible study” without the Holy Spirit – I could read the Bible without seeing Christ, without being touched by Christ, without being transformed into the image of Christ. And again, I wondered why we didn’t discuss this in seminary. Have our seminaries become captives of the world’s academia? Well, I don’t know the answer to that; maybe it is an issue of degree…maybe it depends on the school…maybe it is (and always has been) a lurking danger.

I have on my shelf commentaries on the Bible written by folks I respect, and yet when I read them it is not unusual to see a writer – scholar move from the Bible to the world’s thinking, then back to the Bible and then back to the world – paying homage to the Word of God one moment, and then paying homage to this present age in the next. I don’t think we can serve both God and worldly academia – the evidences that this present age demand before it shows respect are not always (seldom?) compatible with the Cross of Christ. Well, it’s complicated and I may be rambling. Perhaps we should confess that, “If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ,” Galatians 1:10b. Perhaps Galatians 1:10 ought to be in front of every author, every preacher, every pastor, every seminary professor…and every Christian.

Do we need the Holy Spirit? Are we encountering Jesus Christ as we read the Bible? Are we seeing the Face of God? Is the Word of God active in our lives (Hebrews 4:12, 1 Peter 1:22 – 25)?

Ponderings: 1 Corinthians Chapters 1 – 4

For the past several weeks I’ve been pondering 1 Corinthians Chapter Two, paying particular attention to the idea that “the natural man does not accept or receive the things of the Spirit of God…because they are spiritually understood” (2:14). My considerations have been the result of thinking about the sacramentality of Scripture over the past year – the idea that we truly encounter Christ through the Scripture, that Scripture is a means of grace.

I have heard that Augustine said something to the effect of, “When we encounter Scripture we encounter the face of God.” I haven’t found the actual quote from Augustine, I’ve heard it and read it quoted, but without a citation. Whether Augustine actually wrote it or said it, it is in keeping with his high sacramental view of Scripture. Luther, as I recall, viewed preaching as a sacramental event, something of which I’ve long been conscious.

If what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians Chapter Two is true, then only the Holy Spirit can reveal the Bible to us. This means that as valuable as various forms of exegesis may be, and as valuable as understanding history may be, and as valuable as historical context may be (and we aren’t always certain about close historical context) – that none of these things can take the place of the Holy Spirit and an encounter with Christ in and through the Bible. A fair reading of John Chapters 13 – 17 suggests that, if we are to believe Jesus, the Holy Spirit is vital to us understanding the Word of God and the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Again, a fair reading of the New Testament and of its authors’ use of the Old Testament challenges those of us trained in Enlightenment and naturalistic exegesis to conclude that either: 1) the authors had special insight into certain Old Testament passages and that access to such insight is no longer available, 2) or the authors misinterpreted the Old Testament, 3) or just perhaps our training has shut us off from the possibility that the Holy Spirit is still revealing Jesus Christ in and through the entire Bible, including the OT – which of course would be in harmony with both the teaching of Christ in Luke 24 and with the way the Gospel was communicated both orally and in writing in the New Testament period and in the Early Church.

It is possible to have a high view of Scripture but not a high functional view of the Holy Spirit. It is possible to be thoroughly trained in exegesis, in historical disciplines, in ancient languages, and hold to a high view of Scripture, and yet to not encounter the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ in Isaiah, Leviticus, Job, Joel, and throughout the Psalms. What was natural to Jesus Christ and his apostles and their associates has become foreign to us. In Luke Chapter 24 Jesus reveals himself to his disciples in and through the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings (what we call the Old Testament), and yet we generally fail to experience the revelation of Christ in this manner and we fail to model this sacramental and revelatory way of seeing Jesus Christ and teaching Jesus Christ, as Christ himself and his apostles demonstrated to us. While the Church Fathers had their faults, just as we do, many of them did not fail to strive to follow the manner of teaching that they received from the First Century Church – they looked for Christ throughout the entire Bible, and in looking for Christ they not only found him, they also found his Church – in doing this they did what the inspired writers of the New Testament did, they encountered Jesus Christ sacramentally from Genesis – Malachi. This heritage of transcendence is something we’ve lost; when we read Hebrews 12:18 – 29 we generally have no idea what we are reading, we have no sacramental connection with “Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…the general assembly of the firstborn…” In Galatians 4:21 – 31 we cannot look the text in its face and actually believe that “the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.” We who are earthbound cannot do this, we can’t see what we can’t see.

In fact, when we read much of the NT book of Hebrews we simply cannot fathom what the inspired author is saying because not only is he holistically integrating the Old Testament into the Gospel, but he is also moving between heaven and earth, between the seen and the unseen, in a seamless manner that is alien to our materialistic and naturalistic way of thinking, of exegesis, and of teaching and preaching. In fact, the author is saying in effect, “Do you want to see the Gospel? Let’s look at the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.” He is also saying, “Do you want to understand the Tabernacle of Moses? Then let’s look beyond what the natural eye sees into what exists in the heavens.”

Much of the professing church has become functional Marcionites. We give lip-service to the Old Testament but we don’t read it; and when we do read it we do not expect to encounter Jesus Christ pouring through its pages, its images, its paradigms, its history; nor do we expect to see the Church. We have split the One New Man of Ephesians 2:11 – 22 and don’t see the carnage.

Well, the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom (1 Cor. 1:22). Some of us are looking for signs, for a therapeutic message; others are looking for the approval of the academy born of the Enlightenment – naturally we will defend our positions, but really, when we come down to the essentials, do we really need the Holy Spirit in our preaching and teaching? Do we really need the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus Christ from Genesis – Malachi, and then from Matthew – Revelation? Are we and our congregations encountering Christ in and through the Scriptures?

And so I was led to ponder 1 Corinthians Chapter Two, but I think in order to do that I need to ponder its context, why is this chapter in Paul’s trajectory in this letter? So it seems good to me, and I hope the Holy Spirit, to ponder chapters 1 – 4 in Paul’s Corinthian letter. Let’s believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him diligently (Hebrews 11:6).