Preparing people to die

As we approach Good Friday, our thoughts are drawn to the suffering and death of our Lord. Many people want to rush right to the triumph of Easter, but if we brush past the occupied tomb to get to the empty tomb we miss what make the celebration of the Resurrection so joyful. We need to take time to meditate deeply on just what Jesus suffered to pay the price for our sins.

My favorite church service of the year is our Good Friday Tenebrae service. While it isn't one that most Baptists are familiar with, the focus on the words of Scripture and the visual aspects of the service create a moving and somber atmosphere that draws your attention to the cross. When you leave the church in darkness and silence, after a time of meditation on the suffering of Jesus, you are in a place from which the joy of Easter can truly flow. From dark and silent, the church on Easter Sunday will be full of light and joyous sound, reflecting the triumph of our Lord over sin and death.

I was listening to a podcast by Carl Trueman, professor of church history at Westminster Seminary, in which he stated that the role of the pastor is to prepare people to die. It's a provocative thought, but there is a lot of truth in it. Thinking about death runs counter to our culture, which is obsessed with staying alive (and preferably young). Yet we are all assured that one day, barring the return of Christ, we will all die. Are we ready for that to happen to us?

In His suffering and death, Jesus showed us how to be prepared to die. Jesus had a strong relationship with His Father, one that led Him to accept the Father's will above His own. He showed a human desire to avoid suffering and death if possible, yet faced His death with purpose. He went through physical, emotional and spiritual agony, yet in the end He knew triumph even in His pain. His sufferings were real (contrary to a variety of heretical teaching throughout history), but they did not break His confidence in His Father.

Before we can even begin to be prepared to die, we have to have a relationship with God. As sinners, we can't do that on our own, but Jesus made it possible for us to be right with God by taking our judgment on Himself. Through faith in Him, and by the grace of God, we can be brought into a right relationship with our Father. We continue to cultivate that relationship through reading and hearing God's Word, prayer, and service to others in the name of Jesus. As our relationship grows, we learn to trust God in everything, even in suffering and, yes, death. In the end, we are prepared to face death because we know it will bring us into our loving Father's presence.

Our churches can't be so focused on Christian living that they forget to prepare us to die. It is in preparing to die that we can really live, knowing that this life is only the beginning of a greater eternal life with our Lord. So think about the triumph of Jesus over sin and death, and the life He brings us through His victory, but don;t forget to think about dying, and what lies beyond death for you as you follow our Lord's example.

Sunday Sermon: "Call Me Bitter"

The book of Ruth, set in the background of the time of the judges, tells us a marvelous story that gives us a picture of even greater realities. The beginning of the story, however, is awfully dark. The family of Elimelech goes into a voluntary exile to Moab during a famine, leaving behind their home and their place in the people of God. While there, Elimelech's sons both marry Moabite wives, something not forbidden directly by the Law but certainly not completely in line with it. Then the greater tragedy occurs: Elimelech and both of his sons die. (The names of the two sons, Mahlon ("weak") and Kilion ("pining") may give us insight into their early deaths.) Who is left? Elimelech's widow, Naomi, and the two wives of her sons, Ruth and Orpah.

Naomi decides to return to Israel, perhaps just out of desperation. While her two daughters-in-law begin the journey with her, it may have been just the politeness of the younger for the elder. Naomi urges them to leave her, since there really is no future hope for them with her. Orpah follows Naomi's advice and returns to her home, but Ruth refuses to leave. She has decided to remain with Naomi, not only out of family loyalty but also because she has chosen to adopt Naomi's GOd as her own.

Ruth is the central character of the story, and we often focus on her choices when we look at this passage. I think we miss a big point, however, when we skip over Naomi's reactions  When we examine her situation, we see a woman who is older, with no husband, no place of her own, no financial support, and an extra mouth to feed in her foreign daughter-in-law.

How does she react? She acknowledges that it is the Lord who is in control, and accepts that what has happened to her is from Him. Her faith is shaken because of that, and she is in despair. She actually asks that her name be changed, from Naomi {"pleasant"} to Mara {"bitter"}. Her life has become bitter, and her spirit is bitter.

At the end of chapter 1, everything looks bleak for her and for Ruth. Since we tend to rush right into chapter 2, we see what's going to happen and how the Lord will provide, but I think it's important to see where Naomi is at this point. In our own lives, we often find ourselves in situations where we see the Lord moving in ways that make no sense to us, and that leave us at least close to despair. We wonder where God is, and why He isn't doing anything to help us. Yet we may only be at the end of "chapter 1" in our situation.

What does that mean for us? Before we fall into despair, and give up on God, we need to recognize that one moment in our lives does not tell our whole story. The Lord may be working out something that is greater than we expect, but we need to be prepared for it. I believe that we more often arow and move forward in our spiritual lives through our trial than through our blessings. We may need to be dislodged from things in which we have placed our faith, and learn to rely on the Lord.

So if you are experiencing challenges in your life, don't despair. You may just be at the end of chapter 1. The Lord is in control, and He knows what He has in store for you and will move you to that place in His time.

The supremacy of Christ

In our current Family Bible Study curriculum we are studying through the book of Hebrews. As someone who loves Old Testament, I enjoy teaching and studying through Hebrews, since much of the book draws on OT teaching and imagery. Teaching it to elementary students, however, can be a bit of a challenge. Going through the process of preparing lessons for younger learners forces you to think about the essence of what the Bible teaches, and to clarify your own thinking about BIblical passages.

The last several lessons have focused on the comparison between Christ and the OT sacrificial system. Often when adults study through the middle of Hebrews, we get hung up on Melchizedek, how Jesus fulfilled OT types and images, and just to whom Hebrews 6:4-8 is referring. The big picture can get lost in a sea of really interesting details.

What is that big picture? Jesus Christ is superior to all systems of religion. While Hebrews explicitly deals with the OT and with the Judaism of the first century, I think it is fair to take the author's teaching even further and state that Jesus is superior to all other religious systems. There is something genuinely unique about Jesus.

Religion teaches us how we ought to relate to whatever god or ultimate reality is "out there." We engage in a variety of rituals, prayers, sacrifices, and other elements in order to align ourselves with that god. This can even be true of Christians; we can easily fall into the pattern of thinking our standing with God depends on how well we play the religious game.

Despite our best intentions, though, we fail to do everything right, and we have to keep going back again and again hoping to appease our god and to regain a positive standing with him/her/it. Nothing we do can permanently assure us that we are indeed right, or that we have any guarantee of going to heaven or its equivalent.

Jesus is different. First, what He did had nothing to do with what we do. Jesus became both the perfect sacrifice and the perfect high priest, offering the one sacrifice that does have permanent effect. It doesn't matter how we act, what we do, or how religious we are; Jesus' work was done by Him and accepted by the Father apart from anything any one of us has ever done. Second, when we accept Jesus and His sacrifice, and make Him the Lord of our life and our ultimate concern, we are assured we are right with God, since that staus isn't dependent on us and our behavior.

This doesn't mean we live any old way we want to. Hebrews will go on to discuss how the change that Jesus brings to our lives should change the way we live. What it does mean is that I am always forgiven, because the penalty for my sin has been made "once for all." I'm not dependent on my religiosity or works to earn or pay for my salvation. I am dependent on what Jesus has already done, and I can neither add to nor subtract from that.

This fundamental reminder keeps us on the right track as we seek to live our lives for the Lord. It also makes us different from any religious viewpoint (including ones calling themselves Christian) that would tie us to keeping the Law, following rules, or trying to do more good than bad in order to be right with God. As Christians, we should want to do what Christ commands out of love and gratitude, but our relationship with God ultimately begins and ends with Jesus, not ourselves.

Some consolidation

Due to policy changes on some sites I've been using, I'm attempting to pull the information from this blog, the Finding My Way Around the Fathers blog, and the Pastor Steve's Study Wikispace onto a new site. This is a work in progress, and I don't expect to finish anytime soon. (Having two jobs and a family will do that!) I will keep the two blogs intact (and hopefully I'll post on them from time to time), but to have a unified access point you will want to visit this site:

The "new" Pastor Steve's Study

Thanks for all your continued interest and support!

Theology Reading Group suggested reading

We're hoping to get a theology reading group going at my home church. The best way I have of communicating with the group when I need something longer than a Facebook post is through this blog. However, even if you can't (or don't want to) be a part of the group, yo can benefit from reading the works we'll be reading and discussing.

For our first meeting, I think it would be good to get a lay of the theological landscape. I'm suggesting that we all read several of the classic Protestant confessions to familiarize ourselves with the topics of theology and with both the commonalities and differences between the Protestant denominations. (We're a Protestant group, so we're trying to get a handle on our own theological tradition.)

I think the following confessions will give us a fairly broad spectrum of classic evangelical Protestant faith:

The Augsburg Confession, Lutheran, 1530
The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, Anglican (Episcopal), 1571
The Westminster Confession, Reformed/Presbyterian, 1647
 The Methodist Articles of Religion, Methodist, 1784
The New Hampshire Confession, Baptist, 1833

I'd suggest getting a copy of John Leith's "Creeds of the Churches," 3rd edition. You can get it cheap used through Amazon or Barnes and Noble. It's a lot more convenient for reading and reference purposes. (I can get copies for members of the group, if you don't do online ordering.)

Alternatively, you can access these confessions online in Philip Schaff's "Creeds of Christendom" at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. They might be hard to read, since many of the confessions are printed in two columns, Latin and English translation. But CCEL is a terrific resource; you should become familiar with it. I have links to the specific confessions we'll be reading below. (If you already have Schaff on your shelf, good for you! Go with that.)

The Augsburg Confession (Lutheran): http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds3.iii.ii.html
The Westminster Confession (Reformed/Presbyterian): http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds3.iv.xvii.ii.html
The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (Anglican): http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds3.iv.xi.html
The Methodist Articles of Religion (Methodist): http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds3.v.vi.html
The New Hampshire Confession (Baptist): http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds3.v.ii.ii.html

If you have any comments or questions, just let me know. If you're going to be in the group, you know how to find me.

The best-laid plans...

It's amazing sometimes the way life derails even our best-laid plans. Thus, no blog posts for the past three weeks. Sure, it sounds like an excuse; after all, everyone's busy with the stuff of life. And, in fact, it probably is just an excuse. However, it gives me a chance for some theological ruminations.

We all live out our lives here on earth under the providence of God. For some, this provides the comforting thought that no matter what happens, God is there with us through it all. For others, it provides a level of frustration, since they expect that God's presence should keep all the problems away from us. For many, the providence of God is an uncomfortable or even unwelcome thought. They want to be in control, and if there is a God is means that He has some claim on their lives.

Maybe for most of us all three of these are true at various times in our lives. For instance, we have the innate desire to be in control of what happens to us, to be the captain of our own fate. Further reflection will remind us that this is obviously not true. That's not a fallacious "obviously" that attempts to evade the question; if you think about your life, how much of it happened without your approval? Your physical makeup, your family, where you were born and grew up, the talents you have, many of the circumstances of life- all of these happen without any input on our part. No matter how hard we try or how much we work at it, we can't control much of our lives.

The thought that if God is for us nothing bad should happen to us  is the focus of a lot of teaching these days. (It was also the focus of a lot of teaching throughout history, but we tend to forget that.) By reading certain Biblical passages in a certain way, and taking a few verses out of context, and tying that together with the truth that God does care for us, we think that as long as we're trying to please God we should avoid the bad things that happen in this world. Yet the Bible never promises us that we will avoid problems if we're faithful to God. In fact, it promises just the opposite! (Read Mark 10:30 and James 1:2-4, in context please.)

Ultimately the promise of the presence of God in our lives provides comfort not because it ensures we won't face trials, but because it promises that He goes with us through the trials. One of the salient points of Easter is that Jesus went through suffering on our behalf, so when we suffer we don't go to a God who doesn't understand what we're facing, but One who experienced it all for us. In the end, our peace and comfort come from knowing our loving Father carries us through all the trials of life, so that whatever happens we are not separated from Him.

Or, maybe, I should say that in the end, the trials of life will bring us to the glories of a perfect life, the kind of life we desire and were made for. Life only lasts so long. Unless Jesus comes back first, we're all going to die. (There's an encouraging word for the day!) But, through the suffering and death of Jesus and the promise of His resurrection, we can be restored to life the way God meant it to be. We've wrecked our lives and our world through sin; Jesus broke the power of sin so the life we want to live can be ours through Him. So I'm not complaining (at least, I'm trying not to). I just want to lean on the comfort of the presence of God through my life, until I have the life He promises in Christ.

The Apocrypha and the Hebrew canon

For my Bible reading project this year, I decided for the first time to read through a Roman Catholic translation, including the Apocrypha. I've read through the books of the Apocrypha before, but I thought it would be informative to read through them as they stand in the Bible. I take them in the order they appear in the New American Bible, Revised Edition, which is the translation I have chosen to read. So today I reached the first of these books, Tobit. (I admit that Tobit is a fascinating story, if a bit strange in detail and with a decided emphasis on almsgiving as a means of righteousness.)

Now my friends will hit me from both sides the fence on this reading choice. My Protestant friends will ask me why I bother to read the Apocryphal books at all. (Some might even question why I'd bother with a non-Protestant translation, but I reading through a variety of translations gives me insights into where many of them come from theologically, and the Word of God is powerful in any good translation-and even in many bad ones!) As someone who has a deep interest in the early church, especially the Ante-Nicene period, I know that while these books were generally not accepted as canonical, they were respected as books that provided spiritual insight that could be helpful. In many respects, they are an OT era parallel to books like the Epistle of Barnabas, the Didache, and 1 Clement, which were valued by the church but were ultimately determined to be non-canonical.

My Roman Catholic friends, on the other hand, would ask why, if I consider them worthwhile enough to read and respect the opinion of the early church that they have some value, I don't consider them canonical. While there are a number of reasons to reject the Apocrypha (and even the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches view them as having a lesser canonical status), there really is one reason that stands out for me: they were not part of the Hebrew canon.

The Tanakh, as it later came to be called, was generally settled by time of the Hasmoneans. (The story that it was set at the Council of Jamnia in the late 1st or early 2nd century has been widely discredited.) The name comes from the Hebrew words for the three sections of the Hebrew Bible: Torah (Law), Nebi'im (Prophets), and Kethubim (Writings). It consisted of 22 or 24 books, depending on who was doing the division and whether they felt the need to have the same number of books as the Hebrew alphabet had letters. Several of our current 39 OT books were combined: the books of Samuel, the books of Kings, the books of Chronicles, Ezra/Nehemiah, and the Twelve minor prophets. (To get 22, you can combine Judges/Ruth and Jeremaih/Lamentations.)

This three-fold division, with its constituent books, was well-attested by Jesus' time. The Apocrypha lay outside of the Hebrew canon then, and continues to be rejected as canonical by Jews to this day. In my view, the establishment of what we call the Old Testament canon should follow the practice of the Jewish people, for whom it was a remains Scripture. For Christians to add to that canon is to place our (often much later) views on a higher plain than the views of those for whom these words were life.

I will continue to read the Apocrypha, and I anticipate that I will find it informative, spiritually uplifting, and helpful as devotional literature. I will still, however, base my beliefs and my theology on those books that I believe, and that the Jews believe, are the ones inspired by God.