My first year at LMU is wrapping nicely. I am working on my two papers for this semester. I have completed most of the mental work that goes into them, and now just have to diligently write each day. Both papers present challenges, but I am glad that I only have two classes this semester. In one paper, I contend that the animal liberationists do not give good enough reason to give up on animal testing for medicine. In another, I must show that one of the greatest philosopher/theologians in history was wrong about something. I can't tell you how much I love that challenge.
By the first week of next month, I will be exactly halfway done with my graduate program. I will have completed five classes, and will have five to go. If I complete the class on Augustine this coming summer, I will be ready to have two more "easy" semesters of two classes each instead of three in the first, two in the second. That is a very good thing to look forward to. Though I constantly question the utility of my graduate degree, it is good to know that "the end" is within my grasp.
My summer has a few plans, but one thing is up in the air. As many of you know, I have no idea where I will be living. In a way, this might be a good thing. It might give me an excuse to get out of California for a summer. I am not particularly happy living in Los Angeles. Just about anywhere else will be cheaper (even, God forbid, moving home again), and I do not have a job here that I couldn't easily find somewhere else. Some place where I can get around easier, meet more granola people, and is perhaps cooler would be nice.
On the other hand I would like to stay in the general "area" for a couple of reasons. One, is that I am trying to get plugged into Mosiac West LA out here. Most of you know me are justifiably surprised by this. However, a significant amount of spiritual reflection, prayer, and conversations with my peers have made me confident that this is a good place for me to sojourn. Basically, I need to serve a church again in some capacity, and Mosaic is the best opportunity given my talents and training. Also, that Augustine class is something I don't want to miss either. What happens if my next job is teaching at Christian/Catholic high school? Surely, knowing the background of a great Saint will be important.
Although I do not know exactly where I will be for the summer, I do know how I will decide it. Wherever I will be and whatever I will do this summer will be whatever is the most cost effective. Unfortunately, neither the Augustine class nor Mosiac is worth taking out loans to live. In fact, I really want to minimize "rent" expenses. Whatever happens, will be decided by what job I have in the next couple of weeks.
That's the update on my life. Thanks for reading
Neo-Calvinism?
A recent article in Time, and another (and older) one in Christianity Today cited a growing trend of the new Calvinists in the United States. They’re interesting articles, so go ahead and read them whenever you get a chance. I thought, as this is a blog mostly about religion, that I should give a few cents worth of thoughts.
I am pretty far from Calvinism. Granted, I understand it a lot better now than when I was nineteen and stupid, but it is still not on my theological radar. My litany of objects can wait for some other time, as I am not really an “anti-Calvinist” as many Christians are.
There are few good things I should say anyway. I am actually not surprised, and think it is a good thing, that people are attracted to … doctrine. Such a word is just as scandalous as “religion” in many evangelical minds. It’s good to know that people are paying attention to the theological well, instead of scorning it as un-spiritual. Secondly, there seems to be a great sincerity in feelings one’s sinfulness and being truly amazed that God would save anybody. I think this is a nice check to a lot of the “touchy feely west coast evangelicalism” that is common in southern California. Finally, reformation theology poses a nice challenge to the dispies of the world.
Still though, I always cringe at the phrase “biblical.” I do not affirm the reformed doctrine that one can only believe what you read in scripture and nothing outside of it. This is sola scriptura in the “exclude all else” sense not in the “above all else” sense. Such a thing, I believe, leads to a bad hermeneutic as one must constantly search for where scripture speaks to some issue it was never meant to speak to. People eventually start proof-texting. Also, many of the “young reformed” are passionate about how they came to believe Calvinism via studying the Bible, and not by listening to Calvinist. Isn’t this alleged purity a little naïve? No one reads the Bible without assumptions, and if you’re guided by a charismatic Calvinist preacher chances are, you’ll start reading the Bible like a Calvinist. I’m still Wesleyan at the core myself.
In the larger picture though, I still think this is probably a good and expected thing. I feel that a lot 20-something Christians are dissatisfied with the evangelicalism handed down from the Jesus people generation. It is no surprise that something different attracts our attention, just by virtue of it being different. For some it’s Protestantism with a capital P. Others it’s the emergent church. Some may jump ship completely and go to the RCC or EO.
So I expect, at least for now, for Neo-Calvinism to grow into the next generation. Unless the rapture happens, of course.
I am pretty far from Calvinism. Granted, I understand it a lot better now than when I was nineteen and stupid, but it is still not on my theological radar. My litany of objects can wait for some other time, as I am not really an “anti-Calvinist” as many Christians are.
There are few good things I should say anyway. I am actually not surprised, and think it is a good thing, that people are attracted to … doctrine. Such a word is just as scandalous as “religion” in many evangelical minds. It’s good to know that people are paying attention to the theological well, instead of scorning it as un-spiritual. Secondly, there seems to be a great sincerity in feelings one’s sinfulness and being truly amazed that God would save anybody. I think this is a nice check to a lot of the “touchy feely west coast evangelicalism” that is common in southern California. Finally, reformation theology poses a nice challenge to the dispies of the world.
Still though, I always cringe at the phrase “biblical.” I do not affirm the reformed doctrine that one can only believe what you read in scripture and nothing outside of it. This is sola scriptura in the “exclude all else” sense not in the “above all else” sense. Such a thing, I believe, leads to a bad hermeneutic as one must constantly search for where scripture speaks to some issue it was never meant to speak to. People eventually start proof-texting. Also, many of the “young reformed” are passionate about how they came to believe Calvinism via studying the Bible, and not by listening to Calvinist. Isn’t this alleged purity a little naïve? No one reads the Bible without assumptions, and if you’re guided by a charismatic Calvinist preacher chances are, you’ll start reading the Bible like a Calvinist. I’m still Wesleyan at the core myself.
In the larger picture though, I still think this is probably a good and expected thing. I feel that a lot 20-something Christians are dissatisfied with the evangelicalism handed down from the Jesus people generation. It is no surprise that something different attracts our attention, just by virtue of it being different. For some it’s Protestantism with a capital P. Others it’s the emergent church. Some may jump ship completely and go to the RCC or EO.
So I expect, at least for now, for Neo-Calvinism to grow into the next generation. Unless the rapture happens, of course.
A Purpose Driven Follow Up...
A slower-to-judge friend of mine posted a this interview with Rick Warren in one of my comments. It appears that I, and others, may have been quick to pass judgment on Rick Warren regarding the whole double-speak thing.
Rick Warren defending himself (and successfully, I might add), explaining that the video in question was not a public statement, but video was intended for his congregation alone. He said:
He later explained that part of his beef is that the homosexual community does not believe that someone like Warren (and by extension, other Christians) can love them, be friends with them, yet disagree with homosexual (“gay is the new black”) political platform. In this, I actually empathized with him. It is frustrating but perhaps expected: Christians are taught to love those who are different from them and their own, but we do not always get the same treatment in return.
There were other statements that Warren made that I was happy about it. For instance, he took a stand on non-interference and refused some government money. Wisely, he did not want strings attached. I cannot support him enough in this. I do not have, in principle, a problem with many para-church organizations that do accept federal money, but there is often a cost of identity that I think may make it not worth it.
If I could ask Rick Warren one question it would be this. Refusing government money, because you don’t want the government to mess with your religion, is sound and classical libertarian principle. The government does not get its fingers into the church’s businesses. On the same token, why endorse a “yes” vote on prop 8? The Christian definition of marriage is something that Christians should defend. Why should we allow the government to have its fingers in it? The opinion of the body politic means little to me for what marriage is, for the same reason that the opinion of the body politic means little when it comes to baptism. Such is a similar classical libertarian principle that makes accepting money from the government a bad idea. So why care about prop 8?
Rick Warren defending himself (and successfully, I might add), explaining that the video in question was not a public statement, but video was intended for his congregation alone. He said:
The truth is, Proposition 8 was a two-year campaign in the state, and during those two years, I never said a word about it until the eight days before the election, and then I did make a video for my own people when they asked, "How should we vote on this?" It was a pastor talking to his own people. I've never said anything about it since. I don't know how you take one video newsletter to your own church and turn that into, all of a sudden I'm the poster boy for anti-gay marriage.
He later explained that part of his beef is that the homosexual community does not believe that someone like Warren (and by extension, other Christians) can love them, be friends with them, yet disagree with homosexual (“gay is the new black”) political platform. In this, I actually empathized with him. It is frustrating but perhaps expected: Christians are taught to love those who are different from them and their own, but we do not always get the same treatment in return.
There were other statements that Warren made that I was happy about it. For instance, he took a stand on non-interference and refused some government money. Wisely, he did not want strings attached. I cannot support him enough in this. I do not have, in principle, a problem with many para-church organizations that do accept federal money, but there is often a cost of identity that I think may make it not worth it.
If I could ask Rick Warren one question it would be this. Refusing government money, because you don’t want the government to mess with your religion, is sound and classical libertarian principle. The government does not get its fingers into the church’s businesses. On the same token, why endorse a “yes” vote on prop 8? The Christian definition of marriage is something that Christians should defend. Why should we allow the government to have its fingers in it? The opinion of the body politic means little to me for what marriage is, for the same reason that the opinion of the body politic means little when it comes to baptism. Such is a similar classical libertarian principle that makes accepting money from the government a bad idea. So why care about prop 8?
Very tied at the conclusion of an awe inspiring week concluding with an amazing service in 3 acts this morning.
8am - Proclamation of the Resurrection amongst the dead in the yard - 43 people attending
8.30am - Breakfast as on the lake shore with the Risen Jesus - some 50 people
9.30 am - Celebration Eucharist with a congregation of somewhere around 180 people!!!
The presence if the Risen Christ was definitely amongst us - and people had the chance to respond through renewal of baptismal vows and holy water at 8am, through anointing with holy oil as a symbol of wanting the presence of the Risen Christ in us and then giving a candle lit from the Paschal candle to call us to take the light of the Risen Christ out from the Church building into the ordinariness of everyday life at 9.30am.
Fantastic - praise God!
Here's the sermon at 9.30 am or a version of it...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Pepsi-Cola was launched in China, its marketing managers wondered why its famous slogan, 'Come alive with Pepsi ' was not achieving the impact that it had achieved elsewhere in the world. It was discovered that the translator had rendered it: 'Pepsi brings your relatives back from the dead.'
This is the shocking claim of the Easter Gospel - that one man, Jesus of Nazareth has come back from the dead. All of us like a happy ending. The girl gets the guy. The guy gets the girl. The bad guys get got and everyone walks off into the sunset to live happily ever after. Yet the events that Mark records for us that we hear again this morning, are so shocking, that it stuns the central characters into a terrified silence.
There was once a man who was convinced he was dead. His wife and friends became so concerned for him that they referred him to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist set out to prove to the man from medical evidence that dead men don't bleed.
Eventually the man said, "OK, you've convinced me, dead men don't bleed."
At which point the psychiatrist produced a needle and jabbed the man. Looking down with horror at the blood spurting from him, the man said, "Good Lord, dead men do bleed after all!"
Dead men don’t bleed. Dead men don’t come back to life. Fact. Jesus of Nazareth, this outlandish prophet had had his rightful end in the eyes of the authorities. Fact He was silenced permenantly by crucifixion. Fact.
And then, as was the custom, some women - Mary Magdelene, Mary and Salome - were making their way to Jesus’ tomb to anoint the stinking body with spice and oils. They has known Jesus in life as their teacher, Lord, Saviour, Messiah and friend. Now, with crushed hopes, they go to deal with Jesus as a corpse.
As they go along, they chat together, ‘Who will roll away the stone?’ How were they to get to anoint the body? They were still living in a world that says you roll a stone on place over a tomb on Friday it will innevitably be there on Sunday. Whilst the women demonstrate some faith a courage by going to the tomb at all, they carry on living in a world where death has the final word.
Then, bit by bit, this world of theirs and ours is dismantled and everything is thrown off kilter. The women look up and notice that the stone covering the tomb where Jesus’ dead body lay, has been rolled away. They enter the tomb, and in place of a dead body they encounter a living young man - a white robed angelic
visitor. The women are alarmed - a biblical understatement - as their world has been turned upside down.
The young man speaks - do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here...’ And suddenly the certainty that is the life experience of these women and all of our lives, is is violently unsettled by the resurrection, plunging the stone from the tomb into the millpond of history. As the experience of the resurrection hits home, the effects of it ripple out across from then to now and beyond.
The fear that the women felt was natural when all of a sudden, something as certain and inevitable as death, is no longer certain or inevitable, the world has changed dramatically. The women may also have been frightened because they were to be the bearers of a message that unsettled them and the other disciples further. Jesus was going ahead of them to meet them in Galillee - the place where this whole roller-coaster began - back in the context of their everyday lives.
Jesus is suddenly at loose in the world, but he is not here now as a corpse or as a two thousand year old story - but he meets us here as a living reality - not on out terms but on his. There is no escaping him, no containing him, no forgetting him. He comes to meet us and claim us in love. Life as we have known it cannot continue because Jesus goes ahead of us to love us into loving and to call us to discover the empty tomb and the rest of the story for ourselves.
Jesus met the women at the tomb and turned their world, their expectations of life and of death upside down and confirmed for them ultimately that Jesus is who he said and demonstrated he is - God’s Son. Jesus meets us this morning and every day in our everyday lives - an uncontainable living reality, turning expectations of life and of death upside down and confirmed for them ultimately that Jesus is who he said and demonstrated he is - God’s Son.
And because of this - all of a sudden things that seemed impossible are now possible - like the declining of a fight by young men like the teenager Jimmy Mizzen, or the forgiveness Margaret Mizzen his mother showed her son’s killer, instead feeling sorrow for the killer’s parents for what they would now have to live with for the rest of their lives; like the transforming of the life of Shane Taylor - one of the UK’s most dangerous prison inmates, originally imprisoned for attempted murder but then after instigating a riot had his sentence extended by 4 years. Whilst in prison he discovered that he could be locked up and yet free - free from anger and fear that was driving him to be the sort of man he had been.
Friends this is the power of the resurrection, but not just as an event that happened some 2000 years ago, but a person - Jesus - who will transform your life into resurrection life in just the same sort of way - maybe not as dramatically, maybe not over night, but he will if you you will let him.
The women ran off terrified at the empty tomb - terrified at what they had experienced, but maybe terrified at what God was offering - unsettling, but life changing, life affirming transformation not of Jesus, but of their lives.
This Easter day, where are we each? Are we running off, frightened that God can see past our British reserve, frightened that we don’t believe or love enough. Friends do not be afraid - Jesus meets us here this morning - he believe in us enough, he loves us enough. The women on that first Easter morning could not accept the reality of a resurrection life - yet this morning through Jesus’ resurrection we are offered the chance to ‘come alive’ and know freedom from fear and the unconditional love and forgiveness of God. At the empty tomb the women could not accept that new vision of life - the question the Risen Jesus asks us this Easter Day is - can we? Amen.
8am - Proclamation of the Resurrection amongst the dead in the yard - 43 people attending
8.30am - Breakfast as on the lake shore with the Risen Jesus - some 50 people
9.30 am - Celebration Eucharist with a congregation of somewhere around 180 people!!!
The presence if the Risen Christ was definitely amongst us - and people had the chance to respond through renewal of baptismal vows and holy water at 8am, through anointing with holy oil as a symbol of wanting the presence of the Risen Christ in us and then giving a candle lit from the Paschal candle to call us to take the light of the Risen Christ out from the Church building into the ordinariness of everyday life at 9.30am.
Fantastic - praise God!
Here's the sermon at 9.30 am or a version of it...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Pepsi-Cola was launched in China, its marketing managers wondered why its famous slogan, 'Come alive with Pepsi ' was not achieving the impact that it had achieved elsewhere in the world. It was discovered that the translator had rendered it: 'Pepsi brings your relatives back from the dead.'
This is the shocking claim of the Easter Gospel - that one man, Jesus of Nazareth has come back from the dead. All of us like a happy ending. The girl gets the guy. The guy gets the girl. The bad guys get got and everyone walks off into the sunset to live happily ever after. Yet the events that Mark records for us that we hear again this morning, are so shocking, that it stuns the central characters into a terrified silence.
There was once a man who was convinced he was dead. His wife and friends became so concerned for him that they referred him to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist set out to prove to the man from medical evidence that dead men don't bleed.
Eventually the man said, "OK, you've convinced me, dead men don't bleed."
At which point the psychiatrist produced a needle and jabbed the man. Looking down with horror at the blood spurting from him, the man said, "Good Lord, dead men do bleed after all!"
Dead men don’t bleed. Dead men don’t come back to life. Fact. Jesus of Nazareth, this outlandish prophet had had his rightful end in the eyes of the authorities. Fact He was silenced permenantly by crucifixion. Fact.
And then, as was the custom, some women - Mary Magdelene, Mary and Salome - were making their way to Jesus’ tomb to anoint the stinking body with spice and oils. They has known Jesus in life as their teacher, Lord, Saviour, Messiah and friend. Now, with crushed hopes, they go to deal with Jesus as a corpse.
As they go along, they chat together, ‘Who will roll away the stone?’ How were they to get to anoint the body? They were still living in a world that says you roll a stone on place over a tomb on Friday it will innevitably be there on Sunday. Whilst the women demonstrate some faith a courage by going to the tomb at all, they carry on living in a world where death has the final word.
Then, bit by bit, this world of theirs and ours is dismantled and everything is thrown off kilter. The women look up and notice that the stone covering the tomb where Jesus’ dead body lay, has been rolled away. They enter the tomb, and in place of a dead body they encounter a living young man - a white robed angelic
visitor. The women are alarmed - a biblical understatement - as their world has been turned upside down.
The young man speaks - do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here...’ And suddenly the certainty that is the life experience of these women and all of our lives, is is violently unsettled by the resurrection, plunging the stone from the tomb into the millpond of history. As the experience of the resurrection hits home, the effects of it ripple out across from then to now and beyond.
The fear that the women felt was natural when all of a sudden, something as certain and inevitable as death, is no longer certain or inevitable, the world has changed dramatically. The women may also have been frightened because they were to be the bearers of a message that unsettled them and the other disciples further. Jesus was going ahead of them to meet them in Galillee - the place where this whole roller-coaster began - back in the context of their everyday lives.
Jesus is suddenly at loose in the world, but he is not here now as a corpse or as a two thousand year old story - but he meets us here as a living reality - not on out terms but on his. There is no escaping him, no containing him, no forgetting him. He comes to meet us and claim us in love. Life as we have known it cannot continue because Jesus goes ahead of us to love us into loving and to call us to discover the empty tomb and the rest of the story for ourselves.
Jesus met the women at the tomb and turned their world, their expectations of life and of death upside down and confirmed for them ultimately that Jesus is who he said and demonstrated he is - God’s Son. Jesus meets us this morning and every day in our everyday lives - an uncontainable living reality, turning expectations of life and of death upside down and confirmed for them ultimately that Jesus is who he said and demonstrated he is - God’s Son.
And because of this - all of a sudden things that seemed impossible are now possible - like the declining of a fight by young men like the teenager Jimmy Mizzen, or the forgiveness Margaret Mizzen his mother showed her son’s killer, instead feeling sorrow for the killer’s parents for what they would now have to live with for the rest of their lives; like the transforming of the life of Shane Taylor - one of the UK’s most dangerous prison inmates, originally imprisoned for attempted murder but then after instigating a riot had his sentence extended by 4 years. Whilst in prison he discovered that he could be locked up and yet free - free from anger and fear that was driving him to be the sort of man he had been.
Friends this is the power of the resurrection, but not just as an event that happened some 2000 years ago, but a person - Jesus - who will transform your life into resurrection life in just the same sort of way - maybe not as dramatically, maybe not over night, but he will if you you will let him.
The women ran off terrified at the empty tomb - terrified at what they had experienced, but maybe terrified at what God was offering - unsettling, but life changing, life affirming transformation not of Jesus, but of their lives.
This Easter day, where are we each? Are we running off, frightened that God can see past our British reserve, frightened that we don’t believe or love enough. Friends do not be afraid - Jesus meets us here this morning - he believe in us enough, he loves us enough. The women on that first Easter morning could not accept the reality of a resurrection life - yet this morning through Jesus’ resurrection we are offered the chance to ‘come alive’ and know freedom from fear and the unconditional love and forgiveness of God. At the empty tomb the women could not accept that new vision of life - the question the Risen Jesus asks us this Easter Day is - can we? Amen.
God, time, and Free Will: Am I Making Any Sense?
As many of you know, I have serious reservations about the a-temporality (“God is outside of time”) and its relation to free will, which I define as the ability of human agents to choose between alternatives. I am writing a paper on this for my Aquinas class, and my thesis is this: God’s a-temporality, and knowledge gained by such, cannot be reconciled with human free-will in any workable, meaningful sense. It is very important to note that I am not yet endorsing Open Theism for this paper, only that I don’t think Aquinas’ view solves the problem. This blog is my practice round. I hope that I am making some kind of sense?
What is free will?
One of the problems I have with this paper is that I work with a definition of “free will” that is a little different than Aquinas’ view. I think of free will like this: a temporal agent has free-will when it is in that agent’s power, now, to either refrain from some future action, or actualize some future action. So I have free will if I can refrain or actualize from going to a Good Friday service tomorrow. You can are free if you can refrain or actualize drinking that cup of coffee Monday morning. The professor is free if s/he can refrain or actualize from doing his pile of grading come the end of the semester.
Such is so simple that it seems to make sense. Notice, however, that there is a degree of contingency here. What this means is that something is capable of being other than it is. Additionally, in terms of the future, something is capable of being prevented. “Two and three make five” is not contingent because it cannot be any other way. However, “The General Sherman tree is the largest tree in the world by mass” is contingent because that tree could have been chopped down in 1832. “Obama is the President of the United States” is also contingent because he could’ve lost.
Most future events we think of as contingent, but add something else. “Obama will win a second term in 2012” is contingent. “I drink another cup of coffee tomorrow at 9:00am” is contingent. The important thing about future contingencies is that they are contingent and are mutable by our actions. Obama gets voted out 2012 because the libertarians finally get a good candidate and he steals democratic votes. I refrain from that second cup of coffee because I want to fast on Good Friday or something. We cannot, however, change some past contingent like Obama being elected in 2008, or the latte we drank yesterday afternoon. So our past is contingent and immutable, while the future is contingent and mutable.
God’s eternality (a-temporality)
It is important to note that “eternality” is actually a negation that means something like “without time,” which is why I use “a-temporality” for the same concept. If God is outside of time, than a few things follow: (1) Time prepositions such as “before,” “fore,” “after,” “during,” etc should not be applied to God. (2) God takes in all knowledge of human activity “in one act of understanding.” This is exactly what Aquinas believes. For us, time is like a dot of light going across a straight line, but for God the line is already completely lit up. (3) There is no change in God’s knowledge. This again, was an assumption of Aquinas. Additionally, God can never be wrong about anything.
God’s knowledge of our future actions cannot really be called fore-knowledge. Rather, it should just be called “eternal knowledge.” God is aware of the coffee I am having tomorrow afternoon, the fact that I am typing this paper now, and philosophical wise-crack comments I made last night after class all in the same act of understanding. It is something like looking at film strip. We know that there events in the film, we know when they occur, but I do not know them in a sequential temporal order. We, as temporal beings, see time in a sequence of events. The past is done, the present is where the choices are made, and the future will be one way or another based on a choice we make now. But given God’s a-temporality and knowledge, there is simply no difference of this kind between past, present, and future. God sees Obama being reelected in 2012 just like he sees Obama getting elected in 2008. To say something like “God saw Obama getting elected in 2008, and now knows that Obama will be elected in 2012 is to place temporal prepositions on an a-temporal being.
Refraining from that cup of coffee?
Recall what I said about free-will: a temporal agent has free-will when it is in that agent’s power, now, to either refrain from some future action, or actualize some future action. I can refrain from a cup of coffee tomorrow, or I can drink it. Now recall that God’s knowledge cannot change and that God cannot be wrong. God sees me already drinking that cup of coffee tomorrow morning, just like he sees me trying to explain all this to another grad student last night. If I refrain, from that cup of coffee, have I not proven God wrong about something? God, in his eternality, sees me drinking a cup of coffee at 9:00am tomorrow. If God is never wrong, how can I do otherwise?
The response to this is that it is still my choice. God may know exactly what I’ll do, but I still choose those things. My choices cause God to know. The problem is that this is a confusion of what I mean by “choice.” Something is not just a result of my choice if I caused it, but is the result of my choice if I caused it and could have done otherwise. The future we see is contingent, but it is not mutable by our actions under a “God outside of Time” thinking. If it was, God would either be wrong, or his knowledge would change as our choices affect future states of affairs.
So there it is
And that, very briefly stated, is why I do not think that God’s a-temporality can be reconciled with human freedom.
Did I make any kind of sense? Am I clear? Or was this just some existentially driven, and caffeine infused, philosophical gibberish?
What is free will?
One of the problems I have with this paper is that I work with a definition of “free will” that is a little different than Aquinas’ view. I think of free will like this: a temporal agent has free-will when it is in that agent’s power, now, to either refrain from some future action, or actualize some future action. So I have free will if I can refrain or actualize from going to a Good Friday service tomorrow. You can are free if you can refrain or actualize drinking that cup of coffee Monday morning. The professor is free if s/he can refrain or actualize from doing his pile of grading come the end of the semester.
Such is so simple that it seems to make sense. Notice, however, that there is a degree of contingency here. What this means is that something is capable of being other than it is. Additionally, in terms of the future, something is capable of being prevented. “Two and three make five” is not contingent because it cannot be any other way. However, “The General Sherman tree is the largest tree in the world by mass” is contingent because that tree could have been chopped down in 1832. “Obama is the President of the United States” is also contingent because he could’ve lost.
Most future events we think of as contingent, but add something else. “Obama will win a second term in 2012” is contingent. “I drink another cup of coffee tomorrow at 9:00am” is contingent. The important thing about future contingencies is that they are contingent and are mutable by our actions. Obama gets voted out 2012 because the libertarians finally get a good candidate and he steals democratic votes. I refrain from that second cup of coffee because I want to fast on Good Friday or something. We cannot, however, change some past contingent like Obama being elected in 2008, or the latte we drank yesterday afternoon. So our past is contingent and immutable, while the future is contingent and mutable.
God’s eternality (a-temporality)
It is important to note that “eternality” is actually a negation that means something like “without time,” which is why I use “a-temporality” for the same concept. If God is outside of time, than a few things follow: (1) Time prepositions such as “before,” “fore,” “after,” “during,” etc should not be applied to God. (2) God takes in all knowledge of human activity “in one act of understanding.” This is exactly what Aquinas believes. For us, time is like a dot of light going across a straight line, but for God the line is already completely lit up. (3) There is no change in God’s knowledge. This again, was an assumption of Aquinas. Additionally, God can never be wrong about anything.
God’s knowledge of our future actions cannot really be called fore-knowledge. Rather, it should just be called “eternal knowledge.” God is aware of the coffee I am having tomorrow afternoon, the fact that I am typing this paper now, and philosophical wise-crack comments I made last night after class all in the same act of understanding. It is something like looking at film strip. We know that there events in the film, we know when they occur, but I do not know them in a sequential temporal order. We, as temporal beings, see time in a sequence of events. The past is done, the present is where the choices are made, and the future will be one way or another based on a choice we make now. But given God’s a-temporality and knowledge, there is simply no difference of this kind between past, present, and future. God sees Obama being reelected in 2012 just like he sees Obama getting elected in 2008. To say something like “God saw Obama getting elected in 2008, and now knows that Obama will be elected in 2012 is to place temporal prepositions on an a-temporal being.
Refraining from that cup of coffee?
Recall what I said about free-will: a temporal agent has free-will when it is in that agent’s power, now, to either refrain from some future action, or actualize some future action. I can refrain from a cup of coffee tomorrow, or I can drink it. Now recall that God’s knowledge cannot change and that God cannot be wrong. God sees me already drinking that cup of coffee tomorrow morning, just like he sees me trying to explain all this to another grad student last night. If I refrain, from that cup of coffee, have I not proven God wrong about something? God, in his eternality, sees me drinking a cup of coffee at 9:00am tomorrow. If God is never wrong, how can I do otherwise?
The response to this is that it is still my choice. God may know exactly what I’ll do, but I still choose those things. My choices cause God to know. The problem is that this is a confusion of what I mean by “choice.” Something is not just a result of my choice if I caused it, but is the result of my choice if I caused it and could have done otherwise. The future we see is contingent, but it is not mutable by our actions under a “God outside of Time” thinking. If it was, God would either be wrong, or his knowledge would change as our choices affect future states of affairs.
So there it is
And that, very briefly stated, is why I do not think that God’s a-temporality can be reconciled with human freedom.
Did I make any kind of sense? Am I clear? Or was this just some existentially driven, and caffeine infused, philosophical gibberish?
Rick Warren Good Doublespeak?
As many of you know, Rick Warren recently denied, on Larry King, that he ever supported California’s prop 8. Yet it is quite obvious that he did when he, was very clear about it that he did. You can read a whole article about it here*
His denial very much bothered me. He seemed to be back-pedaling from a corner he stuffed himself into. He wants away from the gay issue now (not on his “agenda”), which one can completely empathize with, but still a lie is a lie. I can understand him if he wishes to recant some statements, re-think some actions and opinions, or apologize to those he may have offended. This isn’t it though. He seems to by lying and trying to play politics in order to appease the masses.
Some have suggested a nice, charitable reading of this action: maybe Rick Warren forgot what he said. This seems unlikely. Churches run like companies, and Warren is the CEO. The issue of gay marriage probably came up many, many, times in meetings. He and others likely spent either a long time discussing this issue. The prop 8 question could not have escaped Saddleback church. How likely is it that he could ‘forget’ what he communicated to his congregation on this incredibly hot issue, which was campaigned for and debated about for months?
Maybe by never making a public statement, Warren had something in mind like a press conference or some kind of “on the official record” court testimony. However, but a pastor of his influence should understand that he is under public scrutiny, whether by pulpit or press conference. These days, youtube is enough to make anyone eat their words.
Of course, I have never been a fan of Rick Warren. Neither do I count myself as one of his detractors, but if he continues to pull dishonest, insincere, political double talk, I believe that he will find himself disliked by the sides he tries to appease.
============
*thanks, Allison
His denial very much bothered me. He seemed to be back-pedaling from a corner he stuffed himself into. He wants away from the gay issue now (not on his “agenda”), which one can completely empathize with, but still a lie is a lie. I can understand him if he wishes to recant some statements, re-think some actions and opinions, or apologize to those he may have offended. This isn’t it though. He seems to by lying and trying to play politics in order to appease the masses.
Some have suggested a nice, charitable reading of this action: maybe Rick Warren forgot what he said. This seems unlikely. Churches run like companies, and Warren is the CEO. The issue of gay marriage probably came up many, many, times in meetings. He and others likely spent either a long time discussing this issue. The prop 8 question could not have escaped Saddleback church. How likely is it that he could ‘forget’ what he communicated to his congregation on this incredibly hot issue, which was campaigned for and debated about for months?
Maybe by never making a public statement, Warren had something in mind like a press conference or some kind of “on the official record” court testimony. However, but a pastor of his influence should understand that he is under public scrutiny, whether by pulpit or press conference. These days, youtube is enough to make anyone eat their words.
Of course, I have never been a fan of Rick Warren. Neither do I count myself as one of his detractors, but if he continues to pull dishonest, insincere, political double talk, I believe that he will find himself disliked by the sides he tries to appease.
============
*thanks, Allison
A really good day - beautiful weather. 3 Eucharists (one at home). I wish I had written down what I said this morning (thanks God) but it lead to a really really moving service.
Home communions this afternoon. The this evening the third of three addresses on Micah 6:6-8. Tonight - how do we walk humbly with God. The sermon follows. Again - a really amazing service... Lookig forward to tomorrow :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over these three nights we have been reflecting on this passage from Micah 6:6-8,
6“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Micah asks - how can I/my people renews our relationship with God. Micah asks this aware of the enormous gulf between the people’s lifestyles and the life God longs for them to live. God comes back with this engimatic statement - do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. On Monday we thought about what it meant to do justice, or act justly as some Bibles translate it as. The justice that God speaks of through Micah tonight is yes, seeking to live out the justice of God’s kingdom to the poor, downtrodden, and needy, to side with them and fight their cause - for it is God’s cause. The justice we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to challenge the unjust political, economic, social and environmental structure in society, for God challenges them too. The justice that Micah challenges us to do as a church is both of those and more.... but....
This Holy Week especially, It centres on the justice we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us justice for our waywardness and sinfulness, a justice that we do not deserve. Only He can call us back when we turn our backs on Him. It is the justice shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
Then last night we thought about the call to love kindness or mercy. Through Micah, God calls us to love mercy because that is what we have in fact each been shown by God. The mercy that Micah speaks of is not just compassionate behaviour. The word used in the Hebrew is hesed which is the kindness that one shows another whether a person or God. Moreover acts of hesed lead to other acts of hesed - it flourishes in and builds relationships. Micah here calls to love mercy, to a love in action which is enriches society, builds community and deepens relationships. Loving mercy is an action of setting free those who don’t deserve to be so.
So tonight, what does it mean for us to walk humbly with our God? A good place to begin would be to look back at those in the scriptures who have have learned this for themselves.
Abraham & Sarah, the parents of the Hebrew people, learned that walking humbly with God meant trusting God and walking with God into the unknown.
Moses, the one who led Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness, learned that walking humbly with God meant trusting that God can equip you to do things you could not do on your own.
King David learned that walking humbly with God meant confessing one’s sin
before God. These words are attributed to David: “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)
Job learned that walking humbly with God meant that he would not understand all the ways and thoughts of God. God was God, and he was not.
Queen Esther learned that walking humbly with God meant that she would be
called upon to risk her life for others.
In the New Testament, the humble walk with God is best exemplified by the life of
Jesus. His life was single-mindedly God-directed. “The central theme in the personal life of Jesus (of Nazareth) was his growing intimacy with, trust in, and
love for his Father. His inner life was centered on God. For him the Father meant
everything.”
In answer to Micah’s question about renewing their relationship, God says that He is not looking for faithful following of religious traditions - the burnt offerings that Micah refers to, neither is He looking for His people to offer Him new fads or whims of desperation - the offering of the firstborn is a real clutching at straws by God’s people.
Instead God calls Micah, Israel and us to walk humbly with Him. Walking humbly with God is a metaphor for one who is right with God. One who walks with God is someone who has been graced by God’s presence and partnership in life and death. In other words our walk through life becomes humble only when on realises it is due purely to the unearned grace, mercy and call of God.
Now this sounds great, but this Holy Week and indeed always, our walking humbly with God is costly, for God calls for a physical sacrifice from us, but with no animal or oil in sight. For walking humbly with God demands much from us and tonight, God asks, how much are we willing to give up to walk with Him?
It begins with and continues regularly with confession. The disciple of Jesus
realizes that he or she is totally dependent upon God’s love and mercy. We can do nothing in our own strength.
Martin Luther says that the petition in the Lord’s Prayer (“Forgive us our sins as
we forgive those who sin against us”) serves God’s purpose to break our pride and keep us humble. When we pray this petition and examine ourselves, we will be reminded that we are no more righteous than anyone else, “that in the presence of God all people must fall on their knees and be glad that we can come to forgiveness.”
Our humble walk with God: grows through a “stripping away of all self-
sufficiency.” As Jesus set aside his place with God to become human like us, and the role of a servant, so God desires a similar emptying within us.
(Philippians 2:5-8) A daily walk of trusting in and becoming more dependent on God. A dying to self. More of Christ, less of me, said John the Baptist. (John 3:30) A stripping away of all self-sufficiency so that we can be used for God’s purposes.
The third characteristic of a humble walk with God is that the call to follow
Jesus leads us from a self-centered to an God-centered orientation. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” (Phil. 2:3-4) Jesus, the servant, takes the towel and teaches his followers the values of the kingdom of God.
Here’s where the three mandates of the Micah 6:8 verse come together. The
mandate to walk humbly follows the two previous mandates, to do justice and
move mercy. The three are very much interrelated. When we live justly and show mercy to all people, we are walking humbly with our God. To walk humbly with God involves living justly and mercifully to all people. When we walk humbly with God, our lives take on the cruciform shape of our Lord.
(At the end of the Eucharist, before praying the Post Communion, I talked about how 'walking humbly with God' cashes up in real terms... reiterated the examples of Abraham and Moses and so on. I then linked other real life examples - Maximillian Kolbe, Oscar Romero, and Gee Walker the mother of Anthony Walker who was murdered in Liverpool a few years ago and in the face of his murder she forgave and forgave and forgave...)
Thanks be to God... Amen!
Home communions this afternoon. The this evening the third of three addresses on Micah 6:6-8. Tonight - how do we walk humbly with God. The sermon follows. Again - a really amazing service... Lookig forward to tomorrow :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over these three nights we have been reflecting on this passage from Micah 6:6-8,
6“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Micah asks - how can I/my people renews our relationship with God. Micah asks this aware of the enormous gulf between the people’s lifestyles and the life God longs for them to live. God comes back with this engimatic statement - do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. On Monday we thought about what it meant to do justice, or act justly as some Bibles translate it as. The justice that God speaks of through Micah tonight is yes, seeking to live out the justice of God’s kingdom to the poor, downtrodden, and needy, to side with them and fight their cause - for it is God’s cause. The justice we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to challenge the unjust political, economic, social and environmental structure in society, for God challenges them too. The justice that Micah challenges us to do as a church is both of those and more.... but....
This Holy Week especially, It centres on the justice we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us justice for our waywardness and sinfulness, a justice that we do not deserve. Only He can call us back when we turn our backs on Him. It is the justice shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
Then last night we thought about the call to love kindness or mercy. Through Micah, God calls us to love mercy because that is what we have in fact each been shown by God. The mercy that Micah speaks of is not just compassionate behaviour. The word used in the Hebrew is hesed which is the kindness that one shows another whether a person or God. Moreover acts of hesed lead to other acts of hesed - it flourishes in and builds relationships. Micah here calls to love mercy, to a love in action which is enriches society, builds community and deepens relationships. Loving mercy is an action of setting free those who don’t deserve to be so.
So tonight, what does it mean for us to walk humbly with our God? A good place to begin would be to look back at those in the scriptures who have have learned this for themselves.
Abraham & Sarah, the parents of the Hebrew people, learned that walking humbly with God meant trusting God and walking with God into the unknown.
Moses, the one who led Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness, learned that walking humbly with God meant trusting that God can equip you to do things you could not do on your own.
King David learned that walking humbly with God meant confessing one’s sin
before God. These words are attributed to David: “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)
Job learned that walking humbly with God meant that he would not understand all the ways and thoughts of God. God was God, and he was not.
Queen Esther learned that walking humbly with God meant that she would be
called upon to risk her life for others.
In the New Testament, the humble walk with God is best exemplified by the life of
Jesus. His life was single-mindedly God-directed. “The central theme in the personal life of Jesus (of Nazareth) was his growing intimacy with, trust in, and
love for his Father. His inner life was centered on God. For him the Father meant
everything.”
In answer to Micah’s question about renewing their relationship, God says that He is not looking for faithful following of religious traditions - the burnt offerings that Micah refers to, neither is He looking for His people to offer Him new fads or whims of desperation - the offering of the firstborn is a real clutching at straws by God’s people.
Instead God calls Micah, Israel and us to walk humbly with Him. Walking humbly with God is a metaphor for one who is right with God. One who walks with God is someone who has been graced by God’s presence and partnership in life and death. In other words our walk through life becomes humble only when on realises it is due purely to the unearned grace, mercy and call of God.
Now this sounds great, but this Holy Week and indeed always, our walking humbly with God is costly, for God calls for a physical sacrifice from us, but with no animal or oil in sight. For walking humbly with God demands much from us and tonight, God asks, how much are we willing to give up to walk with Him?
It begins with and continues regularly with confession. The disciple of Jesus
realizes that he or she is totally dependent upon God’s love and mercy. We can do nothing in our own strength.
Martin Luther says that the petition in the Lord’s Prayer (“Forgive us our sins as
we forgive those who sin against us”) serves God’s purpose to break our pride and keep us humble. When we pray this petition and examine ourselves, we will be reminded that we are no more righteous than anyone else, “that in the presence of God all people must fall on their knees and be glad that we can come to forgiveness.”
Our humble walk with God: grows through a “stripping away of all self-
sufficiency.” As Jesus set aside his place with God to become human like us, and the role of a servant, so God desires a similar emptying within us.
(Philippians 2:5-8) A daily walk of trusting in and becoming more dependent on God. A dying to self. More of Christ, less of me, said John the Baptist. (John 3:30) A stripping away of all self-sufficiency so that we can be used for God’s purposes.
The third characteristic of a humble walk with God is that the call to follow
Jesus leads us from a self-centered to an God-centered orientation. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” (Phil. 2:3-4) Jesus, the servant, takes the towel and teaches his followers the values of the kingdom of God.
Here’s where the three mandates of the Micah 6:8 verse come together. The
mandate to walk humbly follows the two previous mandates, to do justice and
move mercy. The three are very much interrelated. When we live justly and show mercy to all people, we are walking humbly with our God. To walk humbly with God involves living justly and mercifully to all people. When we walk humbly with God, our lives take on the cruciform shape of our Lord.
(At the end of the Eucharist, before praying the Post Communion, I talked about how 'walking humbly with God' cashes up in real terms... reiterated the examples of Abraham and Moses and so on. I then linked other real life examples - Maximillian Kolbe, Oscar Romero, and Gee Walker the mother of Anthony Walker who was murdered in Liverpool a few years ago and in the face of his murder she forgave and forgave and forgave...)
Thanks be to God... Amen!
Sorry for the silence! It been way to long since I committed anything to the blog...
Lots has happened... 7 key working groups have been set up since a service to give thanks to God for the gifts and skills of the community. The groups are lay-led and are a way of ensuring ownership of the life of the church, that ideas get generated by the community and are owned by the community, and that they do not stop with me because of the busy nature f ordained ministry.
I have met with most of the groups and I am now really excited about this initiative as some of the ideas are amazing and the energy generated is life changing!
What else? Age of Stupid? The Age of Stupid is a 90-minute film about climate change, set in the future, and stars Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devasted world of 2055, looking back at “archive” footage from 2007 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance? Why were we so stupid? Following this I have been exploring the possability of replacing our oil boiler with some form of renewable energy. I have also been drawn very willingly into the Transition town ideas and I am working with others to begin to explore how we can see Hemel becoming a transition town.
I am sure there is much other stuff that I should record here but I can't remember some of it! I have to say that the last few months have been really hard and I have been really strugging, but I am thankful that the corner has been turned!
Anyway here are two sermons - one from Monday night in Holy Week and one from tonight...
MONDAY:
Many of us have spent Lent, reflecting though sermon and study material, on scriptures linked to the 7 key areas of the life of our church - welcome, children, worship, nurture and study, publicity, community, and pastoral care.
Behind the scenes, as it were, I have met with each of these groups since the service on 25th January when we set them up. I have been so encouraged to see the group members take the God-given task of working within one of these groups to heart. I have also been amazed at some of the ideas that are being formed and acted on to deepen and demonstrate our love of God.
Then, one Tuesday, a couple of weeks back I was praying the midday office on my own in church. As I prayed a verse from the scriptures came into my mind,
6“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Why Lord are you giving me this passage? When all seems to be good, I think, at HT, why am I being presented with this? It is a passage that finds the prophet Micah in despair. As he looks at the community of which he is a part with God’s eyes - God helps him see a people who have abandoned Him. The people have turned their back on God, on His love, on His Law and walked away. Micah stands as a wayward child, longing to return to the love of the family home. But as Micah looks with God’s eyes, he sees a gulf between the attitudes and lifestyles of the people and what God is calling them to be. He sees a chasm so vast that he cannot cross - so far are his community from what God longs them to be. He asks then how they may restore and renew that relationship. As a good Jew, Micah knows that the way to seek the forgiveness and favour with God was through sacrifice. As Micah climbs the mountain to sacrifice to God - he does so hoping that what he offers might please Him and turn away His wrath.
Micah offers sacrifice after sacrifice to God. He offers what might be considered ‘reasonable sacrifices - a one year old calf, right through to the absurd, the unthinkable - the sacrifice of one’s own child. Now from a biblical perspective, this is the ultimate sacrifice, but one that was banned by Torah law. The sacrifice of Isaac is what God had asked of Abraham - to test his faithfulness - but He did not make Abraham go through with it. This was an unthinkable sacrifice. Micah can find nothing to throw down to bridge this gulf between humanity and God.
The picture Micah paints for us is this - the prophet and people are bowed low to the ground in supplication to God, minute grains of sand pressing into their foreheads as if increasing the determination of their prayer, and a priest of the Temple - a direct representative of God in the sight of the people - comes near, touches the stooped heads and quietly but reassuringly says,
He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
He doesn’t even seem to answer the question, which was something like - how can I/we renew my/our relationship with God? If the question is about renewing that relationship, how is doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God the answer?
Tonight I want to to just focus on the idea of the imperative to ‘do justice.’ The call for God’s justice was a distinctive and persistent sound from the Hebrew prophets. When God could no longer stand those in power who used their power not serve but to manipulate, He called a prophet. The prophets generally did not see into the future but rather were made to see things as they are through God’s eyes, and to tell the truth of what they saw with the implications of injustice spelled out.
God would send a prophet to see injustice, to denounce it, and to remind the abusers that there was still a God and that God saw their atrocities and that God would vindicate those harmed by injustice. The prophets announced that unless this change happened by choice God would make it so by force.
What does the justice of God look like? Again and again in the pages of scripture, God’s justice is played out by showing favour to those, siding with those, who would not normally receive a just hearing and their cause to be fought for - the poor (Proverbs 29:14) , the fatherless and widows (Isaiah 1:7), servants (Colossians 4:1) and so on... Those who are on the receiving end of abuses of power. The Beatitudes are a good example - Jesus teaches of the blessedness or happiness of the poor, mourners, the hungry, and the persecuted. God sides with those who society would perhaps feel sorry for for only a millisecond before tuning a kicking them because they are down.
So what has this passage to say to us? The key areas that we are focussing time and energy are god news as far as the church is concerned. They are seeing many people using their gifts and skills to take ownership of the life and direction of this church. To play their part in listening to, and acting on what God is calling us to. They help to devote the time we have better and more effectively in reveling the kingdom of God. But in this Holy Week, as we reflect most personally on the cost of our renewed relationship with God through the most absurd and unthinkable sacrifice of Jesus the Son, what they do not do directly is renew our relationship with God.
We talk much of justice - in the courts, for the people of certain nations, in trade and international dealings, and yet if we got the justice we deserved, we wouldn’t like it very much - for all of us have and do misuse the power given to us - and pretty much all of us would be on the receiving end of judgement.
Yet this Holy Week, as we seek specially to renew our relationship with God, justice lies a it’s very heart. For there is nothing, Micah reminds us, that we can do bridge the gulf between us and God. He shows us justice through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, for through it, He sides with us all.
The justice that we are called to as a church tonight is yes, seeking to live out the justice of God’s kingdom to the poor, downtrodden, and needy, to side with them and fight their cause - for it is God’s cause. The justice we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to challenge the unjust political, economic, social and environmental structure in society, for God challenges them too. The justice that Micah challenges us to do as a church is both of those and more.... but....
This Holy Week especially, It centres on the justice we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us justice for our waywardness and sinfulness, a justice that we do not deserve. Only He can call us back when we turn our backs on Him. It is the justice shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
I thank God for an effective church. I praise God that He calls people to use their gifts and skills, but tonight, I am reminded of the need to do the justice of God - knowing that it was done to me first in Jesus. Amen.
TUESDAY:
One Tuesday, a couple of weeks back I was praying the midday office on my own in church. As I prayed a verse from the scriptures came into my mind,
6“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Last night we focussed on the idea of the imperative to ‘do justice.’ The call for God’s justice was a distinctive and persistent sound from the Hebrew prophets. When God could no longer stand those in power who used their power not serve but to manipulate, He called a prophet. God would send a prophet to see injustice, to denounce it, and to remind the abusers that there was still a God and that God saw their atrocities and that God would vindicate those harmed by injustice. The prophets announced that unless this change happened by choice God would make it so by force.
So what has this passage to say to us? We talk much of justice - in the courts, for the people of certain nations, in trade and international dealings, and yet if we got the justice we deserved, we wouldn’t like it very much - for all of us have and do misuse the power given to us - and pretty much all of us would be on the receiving end of judgement.
Yet this Holy Week, as we seek specially to renew our relationship with God, justice lies a it’s very heart. The justice that we are called to as a church tonight is yes, seeking to live out the justice of God’s kingdom to the poor, downtrodden, and needy, to side with them and fight their cause - for it is God’s cause. The justice we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to challenge the unjust political, economic, social and environmental structure in society, for God challenges them too.
The justice that Micah challenges us to do is centred on the justice we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us justice for our waywardness and sinfulness, a justice that we do not deserve, a justice shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
The call to do justice though is set in tension with a call through Micah from God, to love mercy. A woman once said that mercy was a 2 edged sword. She loved to receive mercy, but she hated being the one to show it. She was asked her why and she replied, ‘...because to be in a position to show mercy means that you have been wronged, and thus be in a position of power: you actually have the right to exact a price. To give mercy means that I have to relinquish my advantage, even my control over a situation and a person who has wronged me...’
Is it right, or just to show mercy to someone who is in the wrong? Shouldn’t there be appropriate penelties for wrongdoing? We still talking of mercy today - the mercy cops, mercy missions and even rather bizarely mercy killings.
Micah calls us to love mercy because that is what we have in fact each been shown by God. The mercy that Micah speaks of is not just compassionate behaviour. The word used in the Hebrew is hesed which is the kindness that one shows another whether a person or God. Moreover acts of hesed lead to other acts of hesed - it flourishes in and builds relationships. A good example is the story of Ruth. Ruth shows hesed to Naomi and Boaz, and Boaz in turn sees that kindness shown by Ruth as part of God’s love and plan.
Micah here calls to love mercy, to a love in action which is enriches society, builds community and deepens relationships. Loving mercy is an action of setting free those who don’t deserve to be so.
Isn’t this the problem with the answer that Micah has been given to his question - how do I renew my relationship with God? Do justice and love mercy... If there were a sacrifice or pennance that I could do, then I could pay something appropriate for my sin. The greater the sin, the greater the sacrifice. The deeper the wound the more difficult the penance. To work as hard for my atonement as I did to create the need for it would surely be beneficial. At least it would make sure that I too it seriously.
The mercy that we are called to as a church tonight is yes, seeking out the poor, downtrodden, and needy locally, to show them love and to prectically provide for their needs - for this God’s will. The mercy we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to play our part in rectifying the oppressive political, economic, social and environmental structures in the world, not for the sake of justice but for those oppressed by them The mercy that Micah challenges us to love as a church is both of those and more.... but....
This Holy Week especially, It centres on the mercy we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us mercy for our waywardness and sinfulness, a mercy that we do not deserve. Only He can call us back when we turn our backs on Him. It is the mercy shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
I thank God for an effective church. I praise God that He calls people to use their gifts and skills, but tonight, I am reminded of the need to love with the love and mercy of God - knowing that it was done to me first in Jesus. Amen.
Lots has happened... 7 key working groups have been set up since a service to give thanks to God for the gifts and skills of the community. The groups are lay-led and are a way of ensuring ownership of the life of the church, that ideas get generated by the community and are owned by the community, and that they do not stop with me because of the busy nature f ordained ministry.
I have met with most of the groups and I am now really excited about this initiative as some of the ideas are amazing and the energy generated is life changing!
What else? Age of Stupid? The Age of Stupid is a 90-minute film about climate change, set in the future, and stars Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devasted world of 2055, looking back at “archive” footage from 2007 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance? Why were we so stupid? Following this I have been exploring the possability of replacing our oil boiler with some form of renewable energy. I have also been drawn very willingly into the Transition town ideas and I am working with others to begin to explore how we can see Hemel becoming a transition town.
I am sure there is much other stuff that I should record here but I can't remember some of it! I have to say that the last few months have been really hard and I have been really strugging, but I am thankful that the corner has been turned!
Anyway here are two sermons - one from Monday night in Holy Week and one from tonight...
MONDAY:
Many of us have spent Lent, reflecting though sermon and study material, on scriptures linked to the 7 key areas of the life of our church - welcome, children, worship, nurture and study, publicity, community, and pastoral care.
Behind the scenes, as it were, I have met with each of these groups since the service on 25th January when we set them up. I have been so encouraged to see the group members take the God-given task of working within one of these groups to heart. I have also been amazed at some of the ideas that are being formed and acted on to deepen and demonstrate our love of God.
Then, one Tuesday, a couple of weeks back I was praying the midday office on my own in church. As I prayed a verse from the scriptures came into my mind,
6“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Why Lord are you giving me this passage? When all seems to be good, I think, at HT, why am I being presented with this? It is a passage that finds the prophet Micah in despair. As he looks at the community of which he is a part with God’s eyes - God helps him see a people who have abandoned Him. The people have turned their back on God, on His love, on His Law and walked away. Micah stands as a wayward child, longing to return to the love of the family home. But as Micah looks with God’s eyes, he sees a gulf between the attitudes and lifestyles of the people and what God is calling them to be. He sees a chasm so vast that he cannot cross - so far are his community from what God longs them to be. He asks then how they may restore and renew that relationship. As a good Jew, Micah knows that the way to seek the forgiveness and favour with God was through sacrifice. As Micah climbs the mountain to sacrifice to God - he does so hoping that what he offers might please Him and turn away His wrath.
Micah offers sacrifice after sacrifice to God. He offers what might be considered ‘reasonable sacrifices - a one year old calf, right through to the absurd, the unthinkable - the sacrifice of one’s own child. Now from a biblical perspective, this is the ultimate sacrifice, but one that was banned by Torah law. The sacrifice of Isaac is what God had asked of Abraham - to test his faithfulness - but He did not make Abraham go through with it. This was an unthinkable sacrifice. Micah can find nothing to throw down to bridge this gulf between humanity and God.
The picture Micah paints for us is this - the prophet and people are bowed low to the ground in supplication to God, minute grains of sand pressing into their foreheads as if increasing the determination of their prayer, and a priest of the Temple - a direct representative of God in the sight of the people - comes near, touches the stooped heads and quietly but reassuringly says,
He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
He doesn’t even seem to answer the question, which was something like - how can I/we renew my/our relationship with God? If the question is about renewing that relationship, how is doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God the answer?
Tonight I want to to just focus on the idea of the imperative to ‘do justice.’ The call for God’s justice was a distinctive and persistent sound from the Hebrew prophets. When God could no longer stand those in power who used their power not serve but to manipulate, He called a prophet. The prophets generally did not see into the future but rather were made to see things as they are through God’s eyes, and to tell the truth of what they saw with the implications of injustice spelled out.
God would send a prophet to see injustice, to denounce it, and to remind the abusers that there was still a God and that God saw their atrocities and that God would vindicate those harmed by injustice. The prophets announced that unless this change happened by choice God would make it so by force.
What does the justice of God look like? Again and again in the pages of scripture, God’s justice is played out by showing favour to those, siding with those, who would not normally receive a just hearing and their cause to be fought for - the poor (Proverbs 29:14) , the fatherless and widows (Isaiah 1:7), servants (Colossians 4:1) and so on... Those who are on the receiving end of abuses of power. The Beatitudes are a good example - Jesus teaches of the blessedness or happiness of the poor, mourners, the hungry, and the persecuted. God sides with those who society would perhaps feel sorry for for only a millisecond before tuning a kicking them because they are down.
So what has this passage to say to us? The key areas that we are focussing time and energy are god news as far as the church is concerned. They are seeing many people using their gifts and skills to take ownership of the life and direction of this church. To play their part in listening to, and acting on what God is calling us to. They help to devote the time we have better and more effectively in reveling the kingdom of God. But in this Holy Week, as we reflect most personally on the cost of our renewed relationship with God through the most absurd and unthinkable sacrifice of Jesus the Son, what they do not do directly is renew our relationship with God.
We talk much of justice - in the courts, for the people of certain nations, in trade and international dealings, and yet if we got the justice we deserved, we wouldn’t like it very much - for all of us have and do misuse the power given to us - and pretty much all of us would be on the receiving end of judgement.
Yet this Holy Week, as we seek specially to renew our relationship with God, justice lies a it’s very heart. For there is nothing, Micah reminds us, that we can do bridge the gulf between us and God. He shows us justice through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, for through it, He sides with us all.
The justice that we are called to as a church tonight is yes, seeking to live out the justice of God’s kingdom to the poor, downtrodden, and needy, to side with them and fight their cause - for it is God’s cause. The justice we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to challenge the unjust political, economic, social and environmental structure in society, for God challenges them too. The justice that Micah challenges us to do as a church is both of those and more.... but....
This Holy Week especially, It centres on the justice we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us justice for our waywardness and sinfulness, a justice that we do not deserve. Only He can call us back when we turn our backs on Him. It is the justice shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
I thank God for an effective church. I praise God that He calls people to use their gifts and skills, but tonight, I am reminded of the need to do the justice of God - knowing that it was done to me first in Jesus. Amen.
TUESDAY:
One Tuesday, a couple of weeks back I was praying the midday office on my own in church. As I prayed a verse from the scriptures came into my mind,
6“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Last night we focussed on the idea of the imperative to ‘do justice.’ The call for God’s justice was a distinctive and persistent sound from the Hebrew prophets. When God could no longer stand those in power who used their power not serve but to manipulate, He called a prophet. God would send a prophet to see injustice, to denounce it, and to remind the abusers that there was still a God and that God saw their atrocities and that God would vindicate those harmed by injustice. The prophets announced that unless this change happened by choice God would make it so by force.
So what has this passage to say to us? We talk much of justice - in the courts, for the people of certain nations, in trade and international dealings, and yet if we got the justice we deserved, we wouldn’t like it very much - for all of us have and do misuse the power given to us - and pretty much all of us would be on the receiving end of judgement.
Yet this Holy Week, as we seek specially to renew our relationship with God, justice lies a it’s very heart. The justice that we are called to as a church tonight is yes, seeking to live out the justice of God’s kingdom to the poor, downtrodden, and needy, to side with them and fight their cause - for it is God’s cause. The justice we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to challenge the unjust political, economic, social and environmental structure in society, for God challenges them too.
The justice that Micah challenges us to do is centred on the justice we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us justice for our waywardness and sinfulness, a justice that we do not deserve, a justice shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
The call to do justice though is set in tension with a call through Micah from God, to love mercy. A woman once said that mercy was a 2 edged sword. She loved to receive mercy, but she hated being the one to show it. She was asked her why and she replied, ‘...because to be in a position to show mercy means that you have been wronged, and thus be in a position of power: you actually have the right to exact a price. To give mercy means that I have to relinquish my advantage, even my control over a situation and a person who has wronged me...’
Is it right, or just to show mercy to someone who is in the wrong? Shouldn’t there be appropriate penelties for wrongdoing? We still talking of mercy today - the mercy cops, mercy missions and even rather bizarely mercy killings.
Micah calls us to love mercy because that is what we have in fact each been shown by God. The mercy that Micah speaks of is not just compassionate behaviour. The word used in the Hebrew is hesed which is the kindness that one shows another whether a person or God. Moreover acts of hesed lead to other acts of hesed - it flourishes in and builds relationships. A good example is the story of Ruth. Ruth shows hesed to Naomi and Boaz, and Boaz in turn sees that kindness shown by Ruth as part of God’s love and plan.
Micah here calls to love mercy, to a love in action which is enriches society, builds community and deepens relationships. Loving mercy is an action of setting free those who don’t deserve to be so.
Isn’t this the problem with the answer that Micah has been given to his question - how do I renew my relationship with God? Do justice and love mercy... If there were a sacrifice or pennance that I could do, then I could pay something appropriate for my sin. The greater the sin, the greater the sacrifice. The deeper the wound the more difficult the penance. To work as hard for my atonement as I did to create the need for it would surely be beneficial. At least it would make sure that I too it seriously.
The mercy that we are called to as a church tonight is yes, seeking out the poor, downtrodden, and needy locally, to show them love and to prectically provide for their needs - for this God’s will. The mercy we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to play our part in rectifying the oppressive political, economic, social and environmental structures in the world, not for the sake of justice but for those oppressed by them The mercy that Micah challenges us to love as a church is both of those and more.... but....
This Holy Week especially, It centres on the mercy we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us mercy for our waywardness and sinfulness, a mercy that we do not deserve. Only He can call us back when we turn our backs on Him. It is the mercy shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
I thank God for an effective church. I praise God that He calls people to use their gifts and skills, but tonight, I am reminded of the need to love with the love and mercy of God - knowing that it was done to me first in Jesus. Amen.
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