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the crucified (nonviolent) God
As Easter comes upon us for another year, and we think about the death and resurrection of Jesus, we must ask, what does this event mean for us here, today?
Atemporal “answers” aside, 2011 has been a year, among other things, of great political turbulence across the globe.
War, uprisings, rebellion, and violence have been a hallmark of human history, but seem to be especially concentrated at this stage of the historical drama (at least as far as we know).
Without naming specific conflicts, what does the death and resurrection of Jesus mean for a world seemingly overflowing with violence? Read the rest of this entry
what is the gospel?
At the end of last year I was criticised by the organiser of an event I was asked to speak at because of the gospel that I preached.
“We believe the gospel is the good news about the death and resurrection of Jesus,” he said.
On the surface this assertion sounds good to many Christians. But is that really what the gospel is? Is the gospel really just the stating of a doctrinal belief (albeit one based in history) whereby voluntary assent leads to post mortem safety?
Such a caricature does not seem to make sense of the biblical narrative for me. In the Old Testament the phrase “good news” was used to describe the announcement of the people of God concerning the fact that God would bring them back from Exile in a manner similar to that of the Exodus, and that he would be king over them (e.g. Isaiah 40 esp. vv.9-11; 52 esp. vv.7-10). Such kingship obviously implies a kingdom, and so the ‘good news’ (gospel) was essentially an announcement of the coming kingdom of God, that is, God’s reign/rule over his people who are formed into an alternative society to those surrounding them in accordance with the Mosaic Law.
In this way the gospel was intricately linked to the narrative of the Old Testament; God had redeemed and rescued Israel to become an alternative society to empires like Egypt, though throughout their history Israel had eventually become like such empires. For this reason God would cleanse them through fire in the Exile, and the good news (gospel) was that they would be restored as the originally intended alternative kingdom.
In the New Testament the meaning of ‘gospel’ does not really change. By the time of Jesus two things will largely affect the definition of the Greek word euangelion; Keep Reading…
put your money where your mouth is/put a nail where your hand is
It is not secret that I find myself firmly opposed to the Coalition in regards to the Asylum Seeker issue. In fact I find their willingness to exploit the gullibility of people to be disgusting.
This article just makes things worse…
The question I want to raise this time is not related to the asylum seeker issue per se, but rather is more related to my own personal integrity (and those who might agree with my position or a similar one).
Would I, knowing that I could go to jail for doing so, stand up and do what I thought was right in the name of being compassionate?
Given that much of the current rhetoric about “illegal” immigrants is bizarrely absent of any actual legal backing, I would argue that those immigrants (particularly boat people) who are deemed “illegal” are mostly not so. If there is then no moral reason to treat such people with a lack of compassion, would I welcome them into my home? Even more confronting, would I welcome them knowing I could be deemed a concealer and harbourer of “illegals?” While this question is theoretical (for now at least…), it is not arbitrary…
Nor is it un-theological.
It is no secret that Jesus was executed on a Roman cross. It is however true that there is widespread ignorance about the meaning of that death. For first century people the Roman cross was a punishment reserved for “thieves,” which in that time referred not to robbers, but to political rebels. Jesus was executed as a political rebel. Why? Because he proclaimed and promoted a different empire.
The empire of God!
A different way of life. One in which compassion and mercy and justice and love were the dominating values rather than indifference and cruelty and inequality and fear.
The question is; how closely am I willing to follow Jesus?
Am I willing to rebel against a political system if I believe it to corrupt the values of the kingdom of God (and suffer the consequences of doing so)?
I hope so.
MCA
christ > mission > church
A couple of days ago I started reading ReJesus by Mike Frost and Alan Hirsch. It is a great book, and I would recommend it to everyone. The foundation of the book is basic, but highly imperative. To illustrate I will utilise the scraps of artistry I have at my disposal;
What we see here are three different areas of study in the discipline of theology. Ecclesiology refers to study of the church; its expressions and forms. Missiology pertains to the study of the mission of God and his people; their purpose and function in the world. Christology refers to the study of the person and work of Christ.
In my experience when Christians talk about what they need to do in the world, or what they need to change to be more effective, the conversation most often turns to ecclesiology, that is to say, the conversation ends up being about Church. What should we change? Is it boring? How can we make it more exciting/relevant/effective/engaging/worshipful etc. etc. etc. Keep Reading…
community confusion
“…so how do we go about creating kingdom communities?”
It’s interesting looking at the history of the church-planting movement over the last couple of decades. It seems that many planters have gone out to build new church communities in order to simply “grow” in numerical terms. This has usually been the result of an unsaid partnership between church-planting and church-growth paradigms. However, such a measurement of growth (numbers) is not necessarily what the Kingdom of God is about (Jesus, after all, said the kingdom looked like daily bread and forgiven debt, not packed out Colosseums).
The question above (italics) was one that I asked a friend of mine in a phone conversation about a week ago. Not happy with the idea of simply starting new churches believing this would not necessarily lead to the kingdom coming to the world, my thinking was that we needed to create kingdom communities. These would look different to “churches” in their lack of institutional structure and more organic organisation, as well as their existence being about God’s mission, not institutional survival.
But in reflecting on that conversation, I’d missed a simple reality. Keep Reading…
predestination: have we predetermined God?
In the last week I have constantly been approached in regard to conversations concerning Calvinism.
I don’t know why. I am one of the least interested people in the subject that I know (ignoring of course my stupid post about ‘Calvin Crunch’…). For some reason, though, it seems that the issue of predestination is on a lot of people’s minds. Indeed, there does seem to have been a bit of renewed interest in the subject from the Reformed wing of the Church (think of guys like Mark Driscoll, for example).
What I am about to propose is by no means definitive, for a few reasons; 1) I haven’t really done the relevant reading on Calvinism, 2) I don’t know everything…, 3) I’m not even particularly interested. But hopefully some of my thoughts can help you think about the issue of predestination from a new angle (whether you are a Calvinist, Arminian, Molinist, Open Theist or other…).
Oh, one more thing before I start – please make sure to carefully read what I’m saying before you jump to conclusions, and then after you’ve thought through what I say feel free to commend or crucify me. Keep Reading…
