Living or Pancakes

Part 2: Community

Ephesians 1.1- 6 – Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.  In love he predestined us for adoptions as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Many times the thoughts of what it means to be in community are often summed up in the organizational formats we select.  Those often take form in modern evangelicalism as home groups, life groups, recovery groups, Sunday School, small groups, and so on.  However, this will not be another essay or attempt to convey that people need to walk with other Christians.  I am saying something far more serious.  If one is not in Christian community, that person is not a Christian at all.

Again, before labeling me with any pejorative phrases, what I am namely speaking of is the pattern of belief and life.  If one believes that one does not need the church for her life, she has obviously not seen the beauty of Christ and his bride such that she has been quickened and born-again.  Let me say again, if you are not within and a part of the church, you must not be a saved person.

Secondly, the need for community is essential to the gospel message: the messiah has come, God has presented him to the world to be what Israel failed to be, and by joining with messiah and the messiah community, God is restoring humanity, nature, and all of creation to himself.  When in the close of John’s gospel, Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit on his disciples he is bequeathing to them his vocation.  He was the true Israelite, being the true priest; the light to Israel.  So too, his disciples now through the corporate church are the light to the rest of the world.  His church is a priestly class, a new humanity to be what the people of God were meant to be since creation, God’s face to the world.

William Taylor very appropriately says, ‘When Jesus saves, it is not merely about me and my little sin problem, although it is in part.  Jesus’ saving, is about a whole world cosmic reality that God is making new his creation through the work of his spirit and the proclamation of this good news by his church’.  He does not save so that one can have assurance she will not burn up upon death – although that is quite true.  The purpose, the telos, the reason for the saving is to be united to Christ, to be in him so that as his bride, one is commissioned to the new vocation of light to the world. We must get past the thought within the modern evangelical church that Jesus’ message was about ‘me’, and instead realize that he was calling out a people, a corporate community, and to not be part of this, one must not be saved by his grace.

The incessant practice of sitting back and filling rows of church seats to be consumptive of some spiritual material that some guru is going to impart knowledge to us is not the church.  The church is the visible kingdom of God here on earth.  It is where heaven and earth meet as in the incarnation.  It is where people would see Jesus, his spirit, and hear his message.  The work of Jesus is promulgated by the church in a world that is being restored to the Father through the saints being made holy, blameless, adopted, redeemed, and chosen for such a task.

Individualism will kill the church, because it is very easy to get comfortable and then, God forbid end up with the description, ‘And everyone did was right in their own eyes’.

Part 1: In Christ.

Ephesians 1.1- 6 – Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.  In love he predestined us for adoptions as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

The first essential thing that comes out of this text is that it is littered with language of Christ and more especially the union with him.  The original reference of the Ephesus people is calling them ‘saints’.  The term is levied on them as they are the holy ones of God being reconciled, redeemed, predestined, chosen, and adopted.  These varying terms are to describe the nature of these saints.  So how can one be counted holy?  The term of saints (or holy ones) depends on the relationship those ones have with the God and Father of Jesus.

Repeated is the concept of ‘in Christ’.  The saints are faithful, in Christ; they are blessed, in Christ; they are chosen, in him; and they are adopted, through Jesus Christ.  The theme is glaring and the manner in which one is made a saint is through the union with Christ.  Being in him and uniting with him is the only way whereby one would be able to be redeemed, adopted, and forgiven as mentioned in these verses.

So the question then becomes, to whom does Christ have this manner of union?  Jesus is a monogamous Lord and his bride is his church.  The mode of salvation and becoming a bride, the union with him, the redemption, adoption, and saint-making is reserved for his spouse. This means that Christ is uniting with a people he as called out and is not entering relationships ad hoc with selected individuals.

Radically speaking, you cannot be saved apart from the church.  That is not to say what others of the Roman Catholic variety attempt to say.  Principally speaking, those who are God’s saints are the church – only.  Put in a participial format, it would look like this: those who are the saved ones must be a part of the church and those who are apart from the church are those who are cannot be saved ones.

There is no salvation, saintly sanctification, redemption apart from Christ’s church, because it is she alone who he is manifestly saving, sanctifying, and redeeming.  Humans cannot be saved, sanctified, or redeemed without being in the church (refer to the Westminster Confession Chapter 25, article 2, sub-point 4).

If you are separate from the church of God, which is the bride of Christ, you will be one who is not saved.  The characterization of the saved ones, the saints, the adopted happens within the confines of the church, and apart from her, there is no ordinary means of salvation.

Ask yourself this question, are you a part of the church or are you apart from the church?  Stars are exclusively found in the sky.  If you want to know where stars are, you look to the sky.  Christians are found in the church.  If you want to know where Christians are, you look to the church.

Ephesians 1.1- 6 – Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.  In love he predestined us for adoptions as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

INTRODUCTION – Taking a break from Matthew for a moment, I have been following Bishop Wright’s advice to memorize Ephesians.  When one does this you are captured by the words as they become internalized, and I am continually reading, memorizing, and absorbing these words.  What happened now that I reflect on this and I cannot help but draw a few observations.

In attempting to think this through I discovered that this will be far longer than a typical blog post and so it is easier to break it into parts.  The first part will be weighted on the Christ, while part two will focus on the Community.  The two are inextricably linked and so it is imperative to talk about both here in the first few verses of Ephesians.

Part one will be posted soon.

Matthew 3.1-3 - In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”

John the Baptist is a key figure in the story of Israel’s restoration through her messiah.  His office is that of a prophet and he was the son of a priest.  John was versed in hebrew scriptures, torah, and rabbinic tradition.  He was acquainted with the ruling and influential sects of his day, namely the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, and Essenes.

When he shows up proclaiming ‘Repent’ it is not anything new for a prophet to say.  The prophets for millennia had been the voices calling people to repentance, however the other claim was interesting: ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand’.  Even in the writings of the hebrew prophets, they did not have the immanence in mind that John presents.  Those prophets (e.g. Isaiah quoted in verse 3) were anticipating a future redemption and restoration when the LORD would destroy Israel’s oppressor through an anointed military king, restore the temple, dwell with his people, and glory would come to Israel – in the future.

John is now saying it is at hand.  The kingdom has irrupted in the present, this kingdom of heaven where God would restore the nation, destroy her enemies, and establish his presence with them was happening.  John’s message was that YHWH, God of Israel, had come.

So in his two-fold proclamation they become co-dependent and cooperatively executed.  The first, to repent, is only possible when sin is finally forgiven and the restoring one is there to welcome back the prodigal.  The second, the kingdom at hand, is the reason the first is now possible.  Jesus comes and the king is there with his kingdom.  He is able to forgive sins as the preeminent son of man.  He wages war against Israel’s greatest enemy, her own sin and death, and his triumphant victory is waged as his battling stage is climaxed at Golgotha.  He wields his weapon as the cross rather than a sword, and he pours out his blood for their forgiveness.  He rose from the dead to confirm that he was God’s chosen messiah, and is the assurance of the future resurrection of all.  He ascended into heaven as a coronation of high king of all of everything.

How sweet an announcement John spoke: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’.

Matthew 2.13-15 - Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt  and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Now reading with a perceptive eye, one should see these sentences are almost contrary.  At first it says that an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to ‘…flee to Egypt, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him’.  Seemingly, the reason for going to Egypt was to flee Herod, because he was set on killing the child.  So if you have a simple reading of this passage, it would indicate that Jesus, with his father and mother, left Israel and went to Egypt to avoid death from Herod.

However, in verse 15, Matthew states that this was to fulfill the words of the prophet Hosea, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son’.

First, let us realize that their is no contrary.  The reason for the getting up and going that night was to avoid state-sponsored infanticide, but the ultimate reason was for Jesus to fulfill the words of the prophet Hosea by coming from Egypt.  Many times in scriptural references, it is made clear that the seemingly heinous acts of people on the surface level are for the plan of God to come to reality (e.g. Joseph’s slavery, Moses’s murder, Judah’s exile in Babylon, Jesus’ wrongful execution).  Time and again, the high purposes of God are done at the hands of tyrants, sinners, and god-haters.

Now that that issue is explained, look at the piece from Hosea.  It is strange that Hosea would have said something about the future king Herod, future child in Bethlehem, Roman empire, etc.  In Hosea’s day it would have been realized as a remembrance of God delivering ‘his son’ from Egypt.  In Hosea’s day, this would have been easy recognized as the nation of Israel being brought from slavery by the Lord through Moses.  Now Matthew is co-opting it for Jesus – does he have that interpretative right?

It can be said, and has been trumpeted that texts are best understood in the proper context.  If Hosea was only pointing to a forthcoming messiah 700 years hence, would not his contemporary audience be confused?  Would this messianic prophecy have made any sense to them when it was written?  This is where the concept of sensus plenoir comes in.  Not that you need to know Latin to get this point.

For certain, in Hosea’s time this phrase would have easily been interpreted as Israel coming out of slavery from Egypt by the hand of the Lord with the agent of Moses.  However, Matthew rightfully adapts it to Christ, because he is now trying to show in writing the Gospel, that Jesus is re-constituting God’s people around himself.  Let me say again, Jesus comes to revise what it means to be Israel, namely, that to be a true Jew is to be in Jesus.

He comes as the true Israelite leading the second and greater exodus from the slavery of sin and death.  He reallocates the law in his Sermon on the Mount to demonstrate what the true people of God look like in light of his kingdom coming.  He reveals the ethics of the kingdom in his call to discipleship, parables, and most vividly in his death.  He is the final prophet, priest, and king of the people, and in him Israel has life.  So what Matthew is trying to do is redirect his audience from the shadow and point them to the real.  Jesus has come to fulfill what Israel could not do, be who Israel was not, and finally install God’s rule among them with the Christ as king.  It is the re-constitution of God’s people, centered around messiah.

Matthew 2.11, 16 - And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures,they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh….Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

The juxtaposition in this text is very well written literature.  The pagan magi with their sorcery are the ones kneeling before the king of the Jews, and the Jewish king (at least by title) is calling for the full blown slaughter of Bethlehem.  This text is a very good one to see the two ways that people must respond to the message of Jesus – obedience or obstinance.  Those are the only two options.

The trouble is that several lay people, scholars, pastors, and theologians make the error to assume that there are additional options in response to Jesus.  Many may say he is a good teacher, a moral man, a failed messianic zealot, or philosopher.  The strange this is that when those options were available to his contemporaries, not many used them to describe the man in their midst.  Matthew sets firm ground in the start of his gospel giving the credentials of Jesus through his genealogy, then angelic announcement, followed by old testament witness, and final affirmation by the chief priests and scribes.  Our enlightened western scholarship, due to its pluralism cannot see what the eye-witnesses did. At least Herod, understood that this boy was who the scriptures, magi, chief priests, and scribes said he was – the Messiah.

At this time, I think it will be beneficial to share the words of C.S. Lewis from Mere Christianity which is far more winsome:

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg – or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.

Matthew 2.1-3 – Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”  When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

This of course would be cause for concern for the man whose title it was ‘King of the Jews’.  Herod was the client-king for the Roman province of Judea.  His establishment as king was a way to ensure Pax Romana with the provincial peoples throughout the empire, nonetheless the allegiance of the client-king was to the emperor only.  Naturally, the client-king would acquiesce to the emperor yielding in all respects in order to maintain a lifestyle and power to which he was accustomed.

In comes the magi from the east.  These pagan, non-Jews, non-Romans, asking where is him born king of the Jews.  The interesting thing is that one would think that Herod would immediately correct the magi’s misunderstanding, because Herod was the ‘King of the Jews’ placed there by the most powerful empire the world had ever seen.  It must have been some accident that made these magi confused about the search for this king.

However, they were not looking for the one installed as King of the Jews, they were looking for the one born King of the Jews.  This caveat is what sends Herod into a world of tumultuous concern and Jerusalem with him.  Later in the chapter we discover more, but think about this question, Herod (the one with the title of King) knew he was not the rightful King, so what about you?  Do you recognize Jesus as King?  Are you searching for the one born King or just some self-aggrandizing fool with that label?

Have you found him born King?

Matthew 1.21 - She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

I have been enthralled with commentaries, journals, books, and histories trying to find the historical Jesus.  These quests for the historical Jesus began with German scholarship over 100 years ago, and have gone through many phases and ‘new’ quests.  Many times it leads to a greater understanding of the historical context of first-century Palestine and Judaism, however, there is little new revelation about Jesus’ ministry .

In all the years of development and concentrated effort, the scriptures are clear still that the ministry of Jesus is a rescue mission.  Do not miss this.  If you create a different mission for Jesus, you will be making a different Jesus.  He will save his people from their sins.  He came to do nothing less than a rescue operation to extract his people from the slavery of sin, and transfer them into the kingdom of his marvelous light.

So think about the few things in the sentence: he, his people, save, sin.  These main characters of Matthew 1.21, are essential in understanding Jesus’ mission.

1. He

He is the one, single reference, nominal subject of the sentence.  He is the active agent of the sentence, the action verb is tied to him.  He is the instigator of this rescue mission.  He devised, planned, initiated, executed, and finalized the entire salvation process.  He is the author, and finisher.  Right here in Matthew 1.21, he is the deliverer of the second main word.

2. Save

Saving is what ‘he’ will do.  He will show up and do nothing less than deliver his people from a nemesis that haunts and controls their very being with ruthless tenacity.  This enemy has to be destroyed in order for rescue to happen.  It is not enough to distract the enemy and then covertly extradite those being saved, the enemy must be put to open shame and its throne dashed to pieces.  A public execution of the enemy is necessary to bring about the fullness of the saving.  The slave master must be killed for the saved ones to be freed from his grip.  So who is being saved?

3. His People

This is the curious term that is so important.  Who are ‘his people’?  There is nothing to which Jesus does not rightfully point to and declare, ‘Mine!’, so these people are not a particular ethnic group, language, tribe, or clan.  The corresponding references in Luke are helpful here.  The angel says to the shepherds, ‘I bring you good news of great joy, that will be for all people’. (Luke 2.10).  GOOD NEWS of GREAT JOY that will be for ALL PEOPLE.  The gospel message (good news) is meant for ALL PEOPLE.  The people of Jesus, the ones he saves, the rescued ones, the transferred population, the new citizens, the kingdom are brought in from all peoples.  So when he comes to save his people, ‘his people’ come from every tribe, nation, language, and geographic region to become a new humanity, the real humanity, restored to God through this rescue mission of Jesus.  In short, ‘his people’ is his church.

4. Sin

Sin is the slave master referred to earlier, the tyrannical king of darkness, the one needing public execution, the enemy whose throne will be dashed.  This monstrous beast has gripped the nations with his strangling hold for millennia, and now in Christ he is publicly executed.  Jesus takes sin on his own back, and nails it to the cross (2 Corinthians 5.21).  The sinless one took sin on himself and killed it.  God turns his enormous righteous wrath in on himself in the person of his own son to purchase for himself a people, ransomed from death, redeemed from sin, made friends of God, heirs of glory, and the temple of the Spirit.

He saved his people from their sin.

To him be all blessing, honor, praise, dominion, power, and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Originally published in 2009.

Before we begin the night in Kids’ Village, the leaders gather in a room to pray and discuss the night’s theme and lesson. Invariably it is announced who will be teaching the large group lesson. Each and every time it is my turn, the lesson can be summed up by saying, “Tonight’s lesson is about Jesus.”

It is easy to slip into teaching children about God. This word “G-O-D” carries weight and connotations that can be misleading when considering the truth of what is really going on. Let’s make a conscious effort not to leave God as a nebulous figure in the heavens who may be aloof or as some person who simply spun the worlds into existence and remains outside. Please tell your children about God, but also be specific and tell them about JESUS.

Jesus is the center of the universe, the high king of everything. He is our atoning sacrifice, the first born from among the dead, the promise of resurrection, the Lamb of God and the lion of Judah. He commands the world from the right hand of God, ruling with perfect wisdom and unmatched kindness. He has become flesh and dwelt among us, and to all those who believed in him, he gave them the right to become children of God. He is the most important thing your mind will think about and the sweetest name your lips will utter.

Jesus meets His disciples, who were perplexed by the events of his death and resurrection, and He answers their quandaries by showing from Moses and the prophets all the things concerning himself (Luke 24). He is the God of the Old Testament – the whole story is about Him.

We are Christ-centered people. He is the image of the invisible God; he is the incarnate second person of the Triune God. He is co-existent and co-eternal with the Father. Jesus is God. The entirety of life ought to be centered in the gospel of Jesus bringing salvation by grace through faith and establishing the ultimate everlasting kingdom of God. It is not enough to speak of a generic “G-O-D” emptied into a philosophical point similar to mere theism or worse deism. Instead, fully embrace the Christian story of God who became man and speak that man’s name to your children over and over. That at the name of JESUS every knee will bow.

In two weeks, my brother will be getting married to another man in New York.  That phrase can come as a shock and discomfort for many people, and then not much else is said to me.  Silence follows, then a quick, ‘So how are you handling that?’  I wanted to take time to talk (well write) my thoughts on the matter since it is fast approaching and my heart is heavy.

First, the path my brother has chosen to live I do not endorse.  I remember the day he told me he was going to live a homosexual lifestyle.  In 2004, my wife and I had just been married, and he came to our apartment, and told me that he was gay.  Directly after those words came from his mouth, a 2-3 second pause followed, and then was broken when I said, ‘I love you.’ I do love my brother deeply and still have memories of growing up with him.  I have a scar on my forehead from and brick flowerbed collision while playing keep-away with him as a boy.  He has a scar on his shin where a metal swing set cut him to the bone upon me kicking him into it.  Let me say again, I love my brother.

Concerning my brother’s homosexual lifestyle and his intention to be married on March 27, 2011, I am wounded that many times I communicate this with people and what I receive is pity.  Not that I am not appreciative of empathy and support from my Christian community, but I am troubled that we do not have the same brokenness, gasp, or heart ache about our own (good) sin.  It is so easy to see the other blatant person walking in darkness and forget that we are all in darkness while in sin.  My sin is as Christ-demeaning has my brother’s.  The culmination of this sinful behavior is going to happen in two weeks with a church and state sanctioned wedding through the United Church of Christ in New York.

On January 6, 2011, my brother sent an email to many people in his address book noting that his email address was changing, because he would be taking his husband’s last name – Patterson.  Growing up, we were always told to take pride in our name, our heritage, our family; and here he was changing all that to say, ‘I will no longer be in this family, but choose this life over those with whom I share blood.  Dad, I do not want to be your son anymore’ (my words).  I never spoke with my father about the name change, but I know as a father, it would be devastating to hear that your first-born son would not be carrying your name.  From the time he was conceived, there was nothing to change the fact that he was the first-born son.  My brother has the same initials as my father, and was originally going to be a Junior having the same exact name.  This was a blow that I am still reeling in my mind.  I cannot imagine if my son did the same thing.  My heart is broken for this person, this life, this man who I know very well.

We shared a room for the first 15 years of my life.  We had forts, tents, and water guns.  We did tricks on trampolines, caught fish, and nearly killed our father with the construction of a tree house.  We made records on our old record player (for the young readers, that was this thing that spun around with grooves that then played music before you could download it).

I guess what I am getting at in all this is that I am in pain and strangely sad about all this.  I try to put on a face of strength and apathy about it all, but honestly I am crushed that this day is coming in two weeks.

My sin did this.  Let me say again, my sin did this.  My sin is the reason my brother lives a homosexual life.  My sin is the cause of my brother’s rebellion.  My sin creates the marriage between my brother and another man. My sin, my sin, my sin.  The sin in my body is the same as in him.  Our manifestation may vary, but the sin that entangles me is the same sin that attacks him.  Sin causes everything from broken families to broken bones.  Plate tectonics shift and tsunamis flood because of sin – the world has been subjected to futility.  My sin, your sin, our sin did this.

But God…..

Being RICH in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

It is with tears running down my face I say, ‘Lord Jesus please save my brother’.

To him be all glory, honor, praise, and dominion forever and ever.  Amen.