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Is This Enough? An Offering on God's Wrath

1/8/2023

One of the most compelling questions within faith is the meaning and purpose of God’s wrath. This is the question that Kevin Kinghorn and Stephen Travis set out to answer in their book But What About God’s Wrath? The Compelling Love Story of Divine Anger (Grand Rapids: Intervarsity, 2019).

The authors plot a systematic and logical course to answer this question for their readers. First, the authors establish that God's wrath is not a response to his emotion, but to his intentional action towards a goal. In other words, God's wrath has a purpose or goal to it; it is not capricious. What is that purpose or goal? The goal is to force humanity to come face to face with its own sin and return to faithfulness to God. Building on that insight, Kinghorn and Travis reject the idea that wrath is a primary attribute of God. To prove this they turn the doctrine of the Trinity In the Trinity, what each person (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) shares is love - not wrath.

The rest of this offering builds upon these two central chapters. Surveying Scriptural numerous references to God's wrath, the authors show how their argument plays out in individual cases of wrath. Sodom and Gomorrah is a case in point. God's wrath that burned again the people of Sodom and Gomorrah was not random or unprovoked. They chose their fate by rejecting God. Abraham pleaded for them, but no one righteous could be found. In His love, God provided a way out, but they rejected this. This leads to the outpouring of God's wrath. Wrath . . . but wrath with a purpose.

While this book is extremely informative and creative in its approach to the question of the purpose and meaning of God's wrath, there are some challenges. The first is their use of personification (or more exact, the over use of personification. Throughout the book, primarily in the first chapter, Kinghorn and Travis makes the argument that we can understand God's wrath and love by understanding our own love and wrath. Personification can be helpful, but it does have limits. These limits are not acknowledged sufficiently by the authors. Another point of weakness in the text is the lack of applying this distinction between love and wrath to modern times. Questions like why do bad things happen to good people or why do innocent people experience God's wrath are not answered.

Despite the challenges, this book is an excellent volume. The authors help the reader understand more fully how God operates and exists in his Trinitarian nature as they explain how wrath is a characteristic of God, but not a primary one. One can imagine future pastors and authors building on these concepts.

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Challenges and Religious Identity (the challenge of evangelicalism)

10/5/2022

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Questions surrounding the meaning and viability of evangelicalism have been swirling around for quite some time now. A recent blog by Michael Bird, an Australian Anglican priest and scholar, contributes to the conversation around evangelicalism (you can read the blog here). The blog post (along with the video that accompanies it) is excellent. He is very insightful and brings out numerous aspects of evangelical that can be "saved" (no pun intended).

I try to refrain from engaging frivolous arguments in blog posts or any writings. That being said, there is something in the blog that I wish to challenge. Bird argues that in the historical context the title of "evangelicalism" is still worth keeping. Further, he argues that as long as evangelicalism means that the gospel is good news about Jesus (and I would assume its proclamation): evangelicalism can be saved.

Honestly, I think that ship has sailed. The reality is that evangelicalism cannot, and has not been, narrowly defined as the proclamation of the good new about Jesus. While the Gospel Coalition is not the only voice in the evangelical world, it certainly is a loud and prominent one. In the blog post by Justin Taylor the "5 Distinctive Marks of Evangelicalism" (you can read the post here). To the degree that Taylor's claims here are carry any weight in the evangelical word, Bird's claim fall short. Evangelicalism cannot be reduced or pared down to just spreading the gospel (I would assume he means missionary activity). There is more there.

So while Bird's comments are valuable, they fall short in this area. The idea of evangelicalism is both morphing and dying at the same time; both can be true at the same time. I look forward to reading his book. Perhaps there is more nuance there.

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Healthy Motivation(s)

10/1/2022

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We have a lot of things that motivate us. Some we are aware of: success, money, sense of accomplishment, etc. While we are aware of some, there are some that sometimes fly under the radar. I'd like to suggest that there are two that often fly under the radar: guilt and fear. I'm certainly not saying that everyone is unaware of these two thing - I'm sure some are. It's just been my experience as a pastor and a person that guilt and fear often fly under the radar of our consciousness. I can't really remember where I came up with these two thing. As you get older, the line between your own creativity and your inheritance of other's creativity gets blurred!

Anyway, guilt and fear. Let's start with guilt. We all have pasts, both good and bad. We all have situations in which we didn't exactly comport ourselves well. Further, there are actions that have been perpetrated on us that are unhealthy and hurtful. In either case, guilt begins to grow inside of us. We use phrases like "I have to make up for that" or "I must have done something to deserve this" or even "I owe that person something." Recognize any of these phrases?

Now let me be clear. We actually might owe someone something and we may have to go back and apologize for something that we did to someone. It would be ridiculous (and selfish) to deny this. So what am I saying? What I'm saying is that we need to move beyond guilt. We need to "repackage" or "rebrand" why we do things. I think we have all felt this before. When we do something with guilt as the motivator one of the nasty things that arises in us is another motivator that we often ignore, contempt. When guilt drives us, we often will hold in contempt the person or situation in which we are engaging in to jettison the guilt. So now we have an equally difficult problem.

Perhaps your situation is one in which you have had terrible things happen to you. You may find yourself in a place of guilt (or shame - there are not the same, by the way) that something is your fault and have to make up for it. Your problem may not be contempt, but it might be fear. That's something I'll talk about below.

Ultimately, guilt as a motivator creates untenable situations with problems that you cannot even envision . . . until it's too late.

Let's move on to fear. There are a million things that we are afraid of. Pop culture, the media in particular, has trained us to act out of fear. Both the "left," "right," and everyone in between is afraid. When we talk about fear I think we need to make a delineation between everyday fear and deep, profound fear. I'm not saying that everyday fear cannot be profound. What I am saying is that fear of your burger burning on the grill or when your neighbor is going to move her car from out in front of your mailbox is a different kind of fear than the kind of fear that keeps us up at night (if the burger or mailbox situation keeps you up at night, I got nothin' for you :) ).

You know what kind of fear I am talking about We are afraid that we're not good enough parents; we're afraid that we're not good enough spouses or friends or daughters or sons, etc. We are afraid that our lives will not count and that we won't leave a lasting impact on the world. We are deathly afraid or not keep up with the Jones's. "Will our retirement be enough?," "will my children need therapy for their childhood difficulties?" (this might make us feel guilt, if so, read the above again). These are the kinds of questions that force us to lose sleep.

To be sure, some fears are well-placed. There is such a thing as healthy fear (I really question, though, if there is such a thing as healthy guilt). What I am saying is that most of us, at a very visceral level, have unhealthy, unproductive fear - for whatever reason.

If contempt is the result of guilt, then worry and anxiety are the result of fear. When we fear things, we worry about them. Sometimes we worry non-stop. This is called anxiety. Often we let worry morph into anxiety (as someone on anti-anxiety medication I get this all too well). Think anxiety and worry aren't problems? Think again. I bet you know at least one if not two people in your lives who is on anxiety medication (maybe one of those people is YOU).

As a run-of the mill Christian person and as a vocational pastor I am aware of the impact of guilt and fear. Let's be honest, many of my pastor-colleagues and religious "leaders" have probably been the source of your guilt and fear! That being said, I do believe that religion and faith in particular have something to offer. The next blog post will address just what religion and faith have to offer!

Comment below if you have something to say. Share your experience with guilt and fear . . . and also what helps you out with it.

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Now and Then vs. Now and the Not Yet

4/18/2022

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Yesterday was Easter. It was a great day at www.srbcc.com. We had two services with some great fellowship in between.

I don't intentionally work harder on Easter sermons than "regular" ones during the year. That being said, I do feel like there are a lot of special Easter resources out there that I tend to get attracted to. I found this great quote in one of the resources:

“Jesus' resurrection is the beginning of God's new project, not to snatch people away from earth but to colonize earth with the life of heaven.” - N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church.

So there is a lot here in this quote - I don't want to ignore or overlook the nuance or the context. That being said, I think Wright is getting at something important. Wright is, at some level, offering an alternative to the narrative that Christ's death and resurrection is strictly or merely an eschatological event. Having read a lot of Wright's stuff, he would not deny the eschatological character of the resurrection. Surely that exists.

All of that said, much of the evangelical tradition (that I grew up in) emphasizes the eschatological character of the resurrection to the detriment of the ecclesial or ethical dimension of the resurrection. To put it more bluntly, the evangelical tradition has always seen the resurrection of Christ as a "way to salvation." Belief in Christ means that one is saved and going to heaven.

That's the "there and then." But what does the resurrection of Christ mean for the "here and now?"

I think this is exactly what Wright wants us to think about. Christ's work on the cross isn't just about a "one and done" salvation for each of us. It's about how we live now. Paul spends A LOT of time talking bout how we live "here and now." Romans gets a lot of playing time, but what about 1 Corinthians, etc. Now I happen to be in the "we have misread Paul for a long time" camp. This doesn't mean that we can ignore him completely or just mine Romans for theological nuggets to prove a point we already believe. If we 're gonna use, Paul - let's use him right and in good measure.

What of ethical behavior? I find it so odd that many Christians are so narrow in their discussion of it. We all have no problem with Paul's command not so sleep with one's step-mom. Most would find this behavior abhorrent. Paul ALSO spends a lot of time in 1 Corinthians 11 discussing how the rich among them were abusing their wealth and having better meals and food than those who had less. In other words, Paul is chastising them for the way they use their wealth. In fact, in my experience, the church spends a lot of time (way more than Paul and Jesus, no less) enamored with sexual sin. Now I'm not saying sexual sin isn't important. What I am saying is that we live in a over-sexualized culture and that we have chosen to

This is sort of the classic battle, isn't it?

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February 12th, 2022

2/12/2022

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Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres - 1 Corinthians 13:6-7.
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If this passage looks familiar, it probably is. At first glance this passage seems easy to understand and apply. Of course, this passage doesn't have to do just with weddings and romantic love. Perhaps it doesn't have anything to do with this at all. The context of this passage, as can be seen from chapter 12 and chapter 14, is the church (believers in particular, I suspect, but not limited to them) and the use and application of spiritual gifts - not marital love. In fact, the word here, "agape" (transliterated) doesn't necessarily mean romantic love. Many scholars contend that it isn't until after the first century the this word denotes romantic love. A fairer more exact interpretation would be "feeling of strong affection" for both God and others. It is a characteristic that defines our relationship with God and with others. Paul is making a point here. Love defines our relationship with God and others, not the others gifts we may (or may not) have.

How does this play out from a practical perspective. Two things are important here. One is the audience and one is the order (or command). The context is the church and the audience is the "body of Christ" (12:27 - previous chapter). So for our purposes we're talking about everyone in our local church; we're talking about everyone at our church on Sunday morning; we're talking about everyone that comes to our potluck lunches and dinner. This isn't solely about marriage, but about Christian community as a whole. All the men, all the women, all the kids - the annoying ones, the rich ones, the poor ones, the uppity ones . . . you get the point.

When we consider the audience the the order or command becomes pretty profound. The command has long and wide-ranging implications. Paul is calling us to something very, very difficult. No - it wasn't any easier in the first century than it is now. This is a universally and timelessly difficult thing that Paul calling the Christian community to. What exactly then is he calling us to? We are called to prioritize love for others over both our giftedness and the practice of those gifts. So in nuts and bolts terms, it requires a lot of humility and a lot of patience - both characteristics are in short supply in the church (and life in general).

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Advent - Week 1: Hope

11/29/2021

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Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord - Psalm 119:114.
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We are in my favorite time of the year - Advent. This is the time of year that we really reflect on what is most important to us. In particular, we reflect on how important God's gift of Jesus Christ is to us. The gift of Jesus means a lot to all of us as believers. One of the things that Jesus provides for us is hope.

What is it exactly that we hope when we "hope in the Lord" as it says here in Psalm 119? A whole book could be written on this subject. Let me suggest that we focus on one aspect which is hope in suffering. We all suffer - this is a trait common to all humanity. As Christians, we have a hope that our suffering will have some meaning and that ultimately we will overcome our suffering. The Good News is that in Christ we see how suffering is transformed. We find hope and eventual meaning in our suffering as we look to Christ.

As you begin your Advent season, spend this week focusing in on the hope that is found only in Christ!

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Where the "action" happens . . .

11/24/2021

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So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness - Colossians 2:6-7
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Like numerous other verses, this short passage is oft-cited as evidence (by evangelicals, in particular) of the idea that individuals "accept" or must accept Christ as Lord. The emphasis is put on the cognitive assent to faith. The point is that Christ is not one's Lord (or anything else for that matter?) until they intellectually confess Christ as Lord. I've been uncomfortable with this idea for many years for many reasons. Intellectual acceptance of faith is important, no doubt. The question is whether intellectual assent to faith is merely evidence of faith or actually the activation of faith.

As usual, language matters. Actually, in this case, verbs matter. In this passage in Colossians two the verb is "you received" (obvious right?). Paul is referring to the Colossians as a whole, hence the second person plural formation. The issue with the reading of the verb here is that the emphasis is put the "you" rather than the "receive." There is an emphasis who received. The subject of the verb becomes more important than the action of the verb. When one moves the emphasis from "you" to "receive" the focus changes. The emphasis is now on the fact that someone from outside of oneself has been received. Sometimes this verse is translated "I take from." I would argue that the verb is more rightly translated "I receive from." In other words, whatever the Colossians ("you") comes from someone else; it's not something that they take, but something that that they get (perhaps like a gift?). Whatever the Colossians have, they have been gifted, not taken for themselves.

The Colossians are able to continue to live their lives in Christ because they have received Him. This is where the action changes. Once they have received Christ passively they start an active engagement with Christ based on their own actions. Christ has to be gifted for this personal and active "activity" to begin.

Evangelicals emphasis on action is correct, but it is misplaced. Christ is gifted. Our reaction to this giftedness is not a sign that we deserved the gift or went looking for it. Our reaction is what we do when we know we have the gift. The emphasis on action needs to be focused on our journey of discipleship. This is something we can all agree upon.

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Purpose . . .

10/26/2021

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But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy national, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

1 Peter 2:9
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We all look for purpose in life.  Some of us find purpose in our jobs.  Other’s find purpose in their family. Still others find their purpose in helping others.  Purpose helps us to know what matters in our lives. Purpose brings meaning to our lives.  No matter where we find it . . . having a purpose in life is important

Here in this short passage, Peter instructs his readers and fellow believers about their purpose.  He ties their purpose to their identity.  If you are part of God’s chosen people your purpose is different than if you are not a Christ-follower.  As a part of God’s community your purpose is to “declare the praises of him who call you . . .”  Sure, we have to take care of our families, work, etc.  But, our main purpose as people of God is to praise Him for His salvation!

So, this month, no matter what you think your purpose is, don’t forget that as a child of God your main purpose is to worship God.  Keeping that purpose in perspective will change everything in your life!

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October 11th, 2021

10/11/2021

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Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from Him - Psalm 62:1
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Who doesn't love the weekend? Despite having a busy week, the weekend affords us the opportunity to rest. If you like football, you have the opportunity to put your feet up, relax, and watch a good game. Perhaps reading is your preference. You get the opportunity to relax with a good book for a day or two. Whatever you like to do, the weekend gives us the chance to rest.

Of course, there are different kinds of rest. There is a spiritual rest that we all look for. This kind of rest is available to us at any time . . . no need to wait for the weekend! This is the kind of rest that David describes here in Psalm 62:1 - a spiritual rest. Despite his difficulties and challenges David was able to find rest in God and His promises.

We have the opportunity today to find spiritual rest. Like David, we find spiritual rest only in the promises of God. Maybe you didn't get enough physical rest this past weekend and you need a little more. Take confidence in knowing that you can find true and fulfilling spiritual rest in God alone today!

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Following . . .

9/17/2021

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Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children . . .
- Ephesians 5:1
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Who or what we choose to follow says something about us. What quickly comes to mind is being a fan of a sports team - say a college football team. If you are a fan of Alabama (roll tide, right?) it speaks to where you might be from, what team your parents were a fan of, or perhaps where you went to college. When we put on those jerseys of whatever sports team we love, we let people know a lot about us! We are an example of what it means to be a real fan.

Our Christian experience is built on this concept of "following." What we follow determines how we live. The church at Ephesus needed reminding that of everyone or everything they could follow, they needed to follow God's example as seen in Jesus Christ. And why God's example in Christ? Paul reminds them that it is because they are God's "dearly loved children." In other words, you follow who loves you. Since God's love is so evident in Christ Jesus, God is worth following.

As modern Christians we would do well to heed Paul's words. We are God's beloved. His love compels us to follow Him. In fact, there is no greater love than God's love for us. As we go about our week let us be reminded that there is only one that deserves to be followed . . .

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Is This Enough? An Offering on God's Wrath

Challenges and Religious Identity (the challenge of evangelicalism)

Healthy Motivation(s)

Now and Then vs. Now and the Not Yet

February 12th, 2022

Advent - Week 1: Hope

Where the "action" happens . . .

Purpose . . .

October 11th, 2021

Following . . .

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