God the Son

From a Lenten study of Thoughts on The Creed, by Alister McGrath, Chapter 3: God the Son. I was asked to sum up a small section of the Apostle's Creed, "God the Son," for our small group discussion. The following is my meditation on that portion (I reprinted it here in my blog at my mom's request). The full creed is written at the bottom of this post:

I believe in…Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary…

Out of the void, God, Son, and Holy Spirit place a time line in eternity.

God’s Word begins. “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness” (Gen. 1:3-4). Light into darkness is the beginning of all transformation. It is the starting point of the work of God—it’s the “I Believe.”

So, the big clock of our history begins to be wound by the hand of the Father—and Jesus was there. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning” (John 1:1-2).

God kept winding the clock—through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; through poetry and the prophets. All the while sending the message: “He’s coming,” “My Son is coming,” “the Light is coming.” Prophecy after prophecy gave us the hope to believe. The clock was being wound. “He’s coming.”

Then the winding stops. God’s hand has a new work to do. He places it on the shoulder of Gabriel and gives him a message to deliver “in Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.”

“Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you…You will be with child and give birth to a son.”

Then, Gabriel gets to be the first on this earth to speak the name of the promise that had been wound up in our history…

“and you will give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; His kingdom will never end.”

The virgin simply asks, “How?”

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:26-34). The triune Godhead comes to earth. “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world” (John 1:9).

And so God’s hand devotes itself to another task, knitting His own son together in the virgin womb of a young Hebrew girl. My thoughts turned to this son of David and if perhaps God smiled as He was about His work. As He looked through history did He see the genetic characteristics that would one day appear in His begotten Son? Did God remember the heart of David? Did Jesus inherit the smile of Leah as she found the love she longed for was in God alone and gave Him praise at the birth of Judah—from whom a mighty lion was about to come? Did his hands bear a resemblance to Zerubbabel’s who lovingly rebuilt the temple? Did his feet look something like Enoch’s who walked with God to the very throne of heaven?

Matthew’s genealogy gives us Jesus’ legal right to the throne of David through his adoptive father, Joseph. Beth Moore writes, “How awesome of God to purpose that Christ’s royal lineage would come through his adoptive father. In a peculiar kind of way, God the father allowed His son to be ‘adopted’ into a family on earth so that we could be adopted into His family in heaven.” Ephesians 1:5 tells us, “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” Indeed, Matthew’s genealogy tells us much about God’s view of adoption as we see the names of Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba folded into the line of Christ.

From the beginning, “He came into that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:11-13).

Luke’s gospel also identifies Jesus as a descendant of David, this time through his mother’s side—a true blood heir from the first Adam to the second. “So, the Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

His hands, now wounded, were “…lifted up…and [he] blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven” (Luke 24:50). The right hand of the Father had finished the work and welcomed Jesus back to His side.

The clock is unwinding now and the message is, “He’s coming,” “My Son is coming,” “the Light is about to return!”

The Apostle's Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy *catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Amen.

*The word "catholic" refers not to the Roman Catholic Church, but to the universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Terminal Velocity

When you trip and fall, you may skin a knee or elbow. When you fall from six feet or so, you could break a bone. When you fall from more than 30 feet, you'll likely do more damage than that. When you fall from grace, you've reached a terminal velocity that destroys not only the body, but also the soul. This week, I found out an old friend fell.

I was in staff devotions on Wednesday morning when his church was named during prayer time as a body in turmoil needing much prayer. Nothing else was mentioned, but because the pastor was my old friend, I was concerned for this flock that he had been shepherding.

Turns out, my friend is the epicenter of the pain quaking through this church. And, even though we haven't had any contact in years, I am quaking too. I am rocked by the shock waves of this sin. I grieve for him because scripture warns those who accept the mantle of leadership, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly" (James 1:3). I grieve for his wife and sons. I grieve for his parents. I grieve for this church that trusted him and now has to figure out how to follow both 1 Corinthians 5:9-11,

"I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat,"

and yet, be willing to accept a broken, repentant man back with all of the grace Christ has extended to each of us. And, I grieve for the bride, Christ's church and witness to the world. I grieve for all of those outside her walls that have one more reason to believe that Christ doesn't really transform us and will remain lost and disillusioned. And that makes me angry.

As I've prayed for them all this week, I've come to understand a single scriptural concept more completely.

"What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:21, 23).

The appetites of lust and our flesh are big, but our eyes are always bigger than our stomachs, though we keep eating until we burst. Because, as voracious as our appetites are, sin and death are even hungrier. 1 Peter 5:8 warns, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." Devour. Picture something consuming you until you are nothing but bone, and then even your bones are consumed by the dogs that come after. Death in sin is to be totally devoured.

I've read "the wages of sin is death" and I got it. Sin leads to eternal death, life in Christ leads to eternal life. But, I see now that sin and death are too hungry to wait for the final day when Christ will judge us by our own choices. The wages of sin is death and the dividends are paid immediately. My friend fell and the terminal velocity of his sin has resulted in death. His ministry is dead. His marriage is dead. His family is dead. His relationships are dead. His witness is dead. Even the extramarital affairs that propelled him to this death are dead.

It's now up to him, and those most deeply wounded by this sin, to look to the resurrection of Christ and once again grasp the gift of life-giving grace. Only Jesus can transform death into life. I pray with all my heart that redemption will reign over them all.

Ms. Barbie says, "Thinking is hard."

I love irony.
Feminazi I'm not. Yet, neither am I sitting quietly in a corner with a doily on my head waiting for my man to tell me what to do. However, of the two postures, it's the first that I find most objectionable...and ironic.

Here's the thing: feminism requires a distinction between male and female, yet demands equality. Can you really burn your bra and wear lace too? (That's a rhetorical question Barbie.)

Think about it. If I can't be comfortable, as a woman, being part of mankind, it must be because I know I'm not man. If I have to say, as a woman, "please refrain from using masculine personal pronouns when generically talking about 'people' (aka male and female humans)" I have to wonder, why the distinction? Shouldn't feminists be at work erasing the use of feminine pronouns instead of creating new ones? (Ms. Barbie, that is not a trick question.)

Inconsistency is nothing new for the shrill. In fact, I think it's kind of their banner, their coat of arms. When linear thinking jumps the track, it's the sound created that becomes important. The less sense their argument makes, the louder their voices grow. One sound, however, you're never likely to hear is the application of the brakes.

As I look at the landscape of women in the church today, I find more and more an agenda of feminism that doesn't line up with scripture. (I would suggest these women look to the healthy examples of women in leadership—working in concert with men—in Priscilla, Lydia, Mary Magdelene, and others. I don't think these women were worried about proclaiming and promoting God's feminine side or changing titles from chairman to chairperson.)

As I look at the opportunities for women in the church today, I find men reluctant to share the space. (I would suggest these men prayerfully consider the roles of the women mentioned above and how we are all called joint heirs with Christ and have all become part of the priesthood of believers.)

I don't yet fully know what Kingdom work God is preparing me for, but the bottom line is this: I'm man's complement, not his competition. I'm God's creation, HE is my Father and I'm good with that.

A Tale of Two Gardens

Two gardens. Eden and Gethsemane.
Two millennia separate the first sacrifice made to cover sin and the final one.
The first Adam, a man, fell to the temptation of becoming like God. The second Adam, God with us, suffered becoming a man to redeem that fall. One son created, the other begotten. One son rebellious and thus dying, the other obedient unto death.

Two gardens. Eden and Gethsemane.
In the garden, man was given every cup, save one.
In the garden, Christ wept bitterly over the cup of man's failing. A cup He was about to consume—and that He knew, for a time, would consume Him also.
God sought man in the garden, but man hid from Him.
Christ sought God in the garden, but God, instead, hid His face.

Two gardens. Eden and Gethsemane.
Only the ancient serpent is the same. A slithering liar from ages past. His hissing tongue knows no language but hate and falsehood.
He succeeded in Eden. The crunch of an apple reverberated in the din of man's fall.
In Gethsemane, his second victory was nearly in hand. He had this Christ on the ropes. He had this One who had come to save man facing two losses—disobedience in avoiding the cross or death upon it.
This time, however, the sound resonating through the ages would be the crushing of the serpent's own head. A sound echoing in the crashing fall of the gates of death and hell—gates that never again would be allowed to prevail.

Two gardens. Eden and Gethsemane.
Sin entered a perfect world and destroyed it.
Perfection entered a sinful world and redeemed it.

Two gardens. Eden and Gethsemane.
Angels guard the entrance of one with flaming swords so that man may not access the tree of life.
In the other, Angels guard the One who will soon give man access to that tree once more.

Two gardens. Eden and Gethsemane.
We live in the agony of Gethsemane. Yet, because Christ Jesus was obedient unto death, we have on offer the gifts of Eden once more. We have the hope of walking with God in the cool of the day, of being in His presence without the constraints of time.

Christ's passion is for you. It's for our world. It's for the failings of Eden and the joy set before Him.

We live in the agony of Gethsemane. But because of Christ's sacrifice we have the hope of Eden in our hearts.

"…we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:1b-2).

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city" (Revelation 22:13-14).

And the Oscar goes to...

I wrote this essay on February 15, 2007. I post today it in view of the statuette awarded last night to Algore's "An Inconvenient Truth".

Moths on icecaps turning white? No, that’s not it. Polar bears hiding in trees? No, that doesn’t seem right. Could it be moths turning gray on polluted tree bark and polar bears forgetting how to swim when ice melts?

Which is it? It’s none of the above.

The dead, painted moths glued to trees are no different from the polar bears “trapped on a melting-before-our-very-eyes iceberg” in the fact that both are fiction.

The moth deception has come and gone. But, like nature, science abhors a vacuum. So, while one story was manufactured to “prove” evolution, the more recent was crafted to “prove” global warming. Oddly enough, the new story leaves evolution lying dead by the side of the road.

You see, they say it got warmer so the polar bears are smaller and more lean than before. But, they also say this is a bad thing. It seems to me, the bears are simply adapting to environmental changes. However, instead of taking the “I-told-you-so” opportunity that this provided, science sounded the global warming alarm by showing us these “helpless” little bears stranded on a melting iceberg. The fact is, the bears were playing on an ice floe, shaped by the waves of the Artic Ocean. Less than stranded, these playful (and apparently healthy) bears had swum a fair distance to reach the photo op.

After all these years of science’s failure to create the long-promised working model of evolution in the laboratory, one would think scientists the world over would welcome “massive climate change” as an opportunity to finally put evolutionary theory to the test. After all these years of despotic scientific proclamations that refused to hear any voice but their own, they have a golden opportunity to be vindicated. But, instead, they toss their once proud god of evolution by the way side to drink from a more intoxicating fount: global warming.

Or, I guess it could be that science has moved into pantheism. Can they really cast off evolution so quickly or completely? After all, it’s been a good god. Dictating everything yet saying nothing (so as not to confirm or deny its own existence). Evolution is the kind of god most people are looking for. It has been the great, galactic sugar daddy, providing everything and demanding nothing—except rigid lockstep.

I wonder what will come of it, this pantheistic battle between a god that has served science so well and the newer, younger model. The global warming bells and wringing hands tell me evolution may be in its final melt down. Or, maybe (if they are linear at all) when it comes to global warming, nothing adapts. Maybe everything in nature is as fat and lazy as the average mid-day TV watcher. Or, perhaps, deep inside, they know none of us are “the fittest”…

At the end of another record-low February day, the only thing about all of this science that I know for sure, is that none of it is scientific.

Ash Wednesday

"…from dust you are and to dust you will return" —Genesis 3:19

Today marks the beginning of the Holy season of Lent. A time to remember where we come from and to Whom we belong. A time to trade activity, even ministry, for time to truly dwell in solitude with God.

Ash Wednesday, the day marking 40 days prior to Resurrection Sunday, is set aside for self-denial, sober self-evaluation and spiritual renewal. It's a practice that I began to observe about 5 years ago when my husband and I began attending First Presbyterian Church, Tulsa. I am so grateful to have this tradition in my spiritual practice now. It makes the joy of Resurrection day all the more intense and sweet. After 40 days of confession and naming those things in my life that live in the darkest, most secret places; laying bare my deepest needs in Christ's presence; and observing austerity in my diet make the feast of Resurrection Day more than just another big meal. The day itself becomes a feast. All of my senses are more alive and ready for the resurrection we celebrate. I have come to understand many Christians have lost the ability to truly feast because we never take the time to truly fast.

I encourage you to observe Lent this season. There is no magic formula or set of actions. (It won't make you Catholic.) Really, it's more about stopping than doing. Stop doing something and replace that activity with time to be alone with God. Make time for solitude. That's it.

In addition, you can choose to study or use the time to learn a new spiritual discipline. Commit these 40 days to read through Psalms. Fast from media and read a Christian classic like Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton or Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Read about Christ's baptisim and time in the wilderness (Matthew 3:13-17 and 4:1-11) until you can recite it in your mind's eye. Then, insert yourself as a bystander or as one of the people in the text. Let your imagination and the Holy Spirit take you deeper into Scripture and Christ's experience in the wilderness. Explore the subject of prayer or Lectio Divina. Or, choose a fast.

Tonight, I will join Christian worshipers throughout the world in observance of this holy day. I will confess sin and repent. I will celebrate communion. I will receive a cross of ashes on my forehead. I will pray. I will begin a personal journey with my Master through this season. And I will look forward to Resurrection Day!

The following is a prayer of confession written by one of the pastors from my home church, First Presbyterian Church, Tulsa, OK. It seems a fitting prayer for today.

Merciful Father, we confess that we are a fearful people. Anxious and worried about many things, our lives are constricted, sometimes defined by our fears. Yet you call us by name, promise us Your abiding presence, and declare us to be redeemed.
Alas, our fear often reflects a stubborn lack of trust and faith in You. Forgive us dear LORD, and grant us a fervent embrace of Your promises, that we might live with a reckless confidence and offer faithful and daring service to the Master, even Jesus, our LORD. Amen.