PhoenixPreacher

Linkathon! and other…stuff….will be late today as I have some medical stuff to deal with this morning.

Hopefully, our regular content will be up around noon…

Things I Used To Think

(With Apologies to Michael Newnham)

I used to think that theology could be argued and by such argument, one could convince another person of the truth of a position.  Now I know that whatever is not presented in love to another person will be seen as having little, if any, value.

I used to think that preaching could change people’s lives. Now I know that while a sermon may entertain, educate and/or inspire, it is only the life of the one behind the sermon that can touch another life, for good or for ill.

I used to think that there was value in absolute certainty.  Now I know that uncertainty leads to further questioning, further knowledge and a deeper appreciation of those who think differently than oneself.

I used to think that people in a congregation were there to be spoken to and led.  Now I know that, in the words of Chrysostom, “Sometimes the ears of the people are holier than the mouths of the priests…” and some of them may know more of God than myself.

I used to think the Bible was a single book to be outlined, categorized and interpreted. Now I know that the Bible is a collection of history, poetry, chronicles, laws, memoirs and letters, all of which combine to form a unique and singular narrative of God’s revelation and his love for the world he created.

I used to think that the Church was the creation of the Bible.  Now I know that God used the Church to assemble the canon of writings we know as the Bible.

I used to think that Tradition was restrictive and dead.  Now I know that Tradition can be liberating and alive.

I used to think that no one had struggles and disappointments like myself.  Now I know that everybody has struggles and disappointments like myself, and many have far worse.

I used to think that God would eventually bring all “true believers” into my particular Church tradition – Evangelical, Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, Orthodox, Reformed, Baptist, etc.. Now I know that Our Lord has “other sheep… which are not of this fold…” and he leads each of us to places best suited to who we are as individuals.

I used to think that there were answers to all theological questions, you just had read enough, study enough, pray enough and/or work hard enough to find them. Now I know that we indeed “look through a glass darkly”, and some answers have to wait until we “see face to face”.

I used to think that there was some God given meaning in all tragedies. Know I now that we simply live in a fallen world and tragedies come with the territory and many cannot be explained.

I used to think that with enough theological education and learning, we could arrive at definitive answers.  Now I know how much I don’t know and that, if we are theologically and intellectually honest, any definitive answers will likely lead to yet more questions.

I used to think that The Beatles would get back together….

I was wrong about that one as well…

Duane W.H. Arnold, PhD

The Project

Matthew 22:34-45

The Great Commandment

³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

So the Pharisees seeing that the Sadducees had failed, regroup.

• I wonder in the sense of competition and jealousy if the Pharisees snickered at the Sadducees as theological lightweights?

³⁵ And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

• So they send out a lawyer to ask a law question – they send out a specialist, bringing in the closer in the 9^th

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

• Again with the teacher title – although they are unwilling to learn from him.
• This question is quite similar to the question asked by the Rich Young Man.

³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

• OK, softball question, I will give you a softball answer – Love God.

³⁸ This is the great and first commandment.

• OK, this seems simple enough.
• I like the way he divides great and first.

³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

• You asked for one, but I will give you two.
• Love man
• Hey, the Rich Young Man asking a similar question got this one; Sell all that you have, give it to the poor and come follow me.

⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

• Hey guys, it’s all here.
• Note that he takes the lawyer back to the scriptures.
• Now this is a summary of the law – not the elimination of the individual laws.
• We do not have the freedom to do whatever we want in the name of love.
• A deeper Look; what does God want from us / you with each command?
• Loving God is a summary of the first 3 commandments.
• 1^st – God wants your heart. He wants you to trust him.
• 2^nd – God wants your mouth – to call upon his name properly in prayer and thanksgiving.
• 3^rd – God wants your ears by which he comes to you in his words so he can ‘holy you’ (make you holy). How do we keep holy? By letting God holy us — through his word.
• Loving Man / your neighbor is a summary of the remaining 4-10 – as you interact with your neighbor.

Whose Son Is the Christ?

⁴¹ Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,

• Jesus wants to take an opportunity to talk to the Pharisees while they are still gathered together. This would be like “let’s try this one more time.”

⁴² saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.”

• So far so good – good answer – 2 Sam 7 stuff.

⁴³ He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

⁴⁴ “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

• Psalm 110

⁴⁵ If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” ⁴⁶ And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

• Jesus is saying “don’t you even know your own scriptures?”
• But I think they had never seen that passage in that light before.
• This is the state that the unbeliever reads scripture – without the illumination.
• I don’t know that you can understand the scriptures in a saving way without preaching. I don’t think someone can say, “I was just reading the Bible on my own and I became a Christian.”
• God says through Paul, faith comes by hearing and then goes on to talk about how can you have a preacher if one is not sent etc.
• Just like the Ethiopian Eunuch could not figure out the mysteries of the scripture until Philip was sent, preached God’s word and immediately baptized him.
• Although I don’t think it helped the Pharisees, I doubt they looked at that passage in the same way going forward.
• And that is probably what happened to every one of us who thought “we knew the Bible” – even if it was just enough to reject it, when we hear God’s word preached the blindness left us.

When the local television station filmed the front of the house, I knew it could not be the home of my friend.

She would never tolerate an overgrown yard and weeds growing up through the cracked cement.

Same name, different person…had to be someone else.

Then they showed the mugshot and my old friend had indeed been the person that had allegedly shot and killed her husband.

The picture was not flattering…the alcohol was wearing off, but it looked like she had worn off a lot of alcohol since last I saw her.

Of course, the last time I saw her she was buying wine in the biggest receptacle offered.

Before that she was a co-worker and a consummate professional, irascible, untamable, and witty, but with the ability to be all that and hold a job.

The brass were terrified of her, but no one produced like her.

Sometime when she wasn’t looking, the alcohol took over.

Alcohol then became a factor in taking two lives, one in death and one potentially to a life in prison haunted by a single intoxicated outburst.

The ripples out from there are every bit as terrible.

They always are.

I do not know all the details of this horrible incident, and I hope that there is some information that mitigates her guilt, but those hopes are small.

This will end up being what we call one of those “senseless” tragedies, as if any tragedy actually makes sense.

Farther down a Facebook thread that spoke of these ruined lives was a invitation to another one of those “theology pubs”.

Come with us to the bar and talk theology.

We will demonstrate our liberty and and a thick veneer of cool while pitching Scriptures between pitchers of Coors.

I’m not a teetotaler, but I think I’ll pass.

When I needed Jesus, I actually went to church.

It looks like my old friend will miss it too.

She stayed home and drank…

Oddly enough, her neighbors said they knew there was a problem because the yard was overgrown and weeds were coming through the cement…

Make your own application… 

“I believe in the Kingdom Come

Then all the colours will bleed into one

Bleed into one.

But yes, I’m still running.

You broke the bonds

And you loosed the chains

Carried the cross of my shame

Oh my shame, you know I believe it.

But I still haven’t found

What I’m looking for.

But I still haven’t found

What I’m looking for.”

I recently heard Bono refer to “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” as a “gospel song with a restless spirit”.

Along with being one of the most accomplished and recognizable rock bands in the history of the genre, U2 has long been known for its use of spiritual imagery and sometimes outright Christian lyrics.  There is often much curiosity as to the faith and religiosity of the group.  While the band would never fit into the category of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), there is still the impetus by some to classify them as a “Christian” band.  Bono has been quite outspoken about his faith, especially in more recent years, while other band members are more reserved in what they share about whatever beliefs they do or don’t have.  In many ways they remain an enigma when it comes to their “Christianity”.

This is frustrating to some of us.  We want everything to be neat and tidy when it comes to the faith.  You’re either in or out.  You’re either a Christian individual/band/author/etc. or a secular one.  You’re an Evangelical or Reformed or Lutheran or Catholic or Orthodox or etc., etc., or else you’re not a believer.  And for some of us, if someone claims membership in one of the formerly mentioned categories of faith, that just might actually place them in the latter category of unbeliever.

Beyond the categories, we also want everything to be nice and neat in the spoken faith and actions of someone who has a professed faith.  While we don’t expect everything to be perfect, we do expect that once someone gets saved or “rededicates” their life or joins the Evangelical/Lutheran/Anglican/etc. Church that they have found what they’re “looking for”.  They shouldn’t be saying they believe in Jesus on one hand and remaining on some kind of unsettled search on the other.  After all, shouldn’t faith in the work and person of Jesus Christ be the ultimate answer and destination and fulfillment of our needs and yearnings?

Now, of course, in reality nobody can be “sort of” a Christian.  Everyone is either truly in the faith or not – there is no middle ground.  Everyone is either in or out of the Lamb’s Book of Life.  However, there is only One who is the owner of that book and knows all the names present or missing.  For the rest of us, it can be a bit messier than we want in trying to “know” the truth about everybody else in regards to their faith and spiritual state.  We don’t want somebody professing a faith in Christ and then seemingly remaining in a restless state.  Even if we may all have our moments of doubt or uncertainty about matters of the faith, we don’t like it when somebody is regularly questioning the status quo or frequently looking for something more.  These things just don’t fit nicely into our boxes.  If someone is really saved, shouldn’t they be more settled?

It is wonderful when someone comes to faith in Christ and they find true contentment.  It is great when someone joins a church and they feel like they have found a home and no longer struggle with restlessness or anxieties within their faith.  I would hope that each and every believer would be able to experience such a state.  Yet for some professed believers, it would appear they struggle to reach such a state and some seemingly never get there this side of eternity.  Some may have gone through harrowing circumstances in their lives that make it difficult to come to such a peaceful standing.  Others may not have had any specifically terrible traumatic experiences, yet a restlessness gnaws at their soul.  I do not claim to be able to precisely describe and diagnose each such situation.  But for those who struggle to reach that state of comfort and contentment, does that make them lesser Christians?  Does that make them less genuine?  Does that possibly put them out of the faith all together?

I certainly don’t want to play God here and act like I know all the answers and can explain it all.  But I do tend to think that God has a purpose for that restlessness that resides with some believers.  And that it doesn’t automatically make them lesser Christians in any sense.  Maybe it is a tool that God sometimes uses to keep people searching after Him.  Maybe He sometimes uses it to spur them into action.  Maybe Bono wouldn’t have advocated so greatly for the poor and needy in this world if he didn’t have that restlessness.  I don’t know these things, it is just speculation.  But I think they are things worthy of consideration.

I recently heard a popular Evangelical preacher exhorting people to search their Bible when they have questions.  Certainly good advice and a wise thing to do.  But he then went on to say that whenever he has had a question about anything, he has never not found the answer in the Bible when he went looking for it.  In fact, many times it has been quite simple to do, he said.  

I called bull. 

Tell that to the parents who lost their child to a grisly fight with cancer.  Tell that to the one who lost a loved one to a senseless murder or terrorist attack.  Tell that to someone who suffers with a severe and incurable physical or mental or psychological condition.  Many of them are not going to find their answers in the Bible of why they have had to experience such a terrible matter.  Yes, they may find comfort and peace and even contentment.  But answers to why God has allowed such a horrible thing to happen?  I would doubt many ever receive direct answers to such when searching the Word.  Things just aren’t as nice and neat and simple as the big popular preacher wants to tell you that they are and that we want to believe them to be.

And so, a group Like U2 defies the expectations of many of us as to what we expect Christians to be.  Even for those who know substantially more about the band than I do, in some matters there probably would be honest acknowledgment of perplexity.  And yes, there are many things that U2 has said and done that could be worthy of criticism.  They have been far from perfect in their actions or in some of their stated or veiled theologies….. just like the rest of us.  But I don’t know if their restlessness is necessarily a bad thing.  Maybe God has a purpose for Bono and the rest feeling like they “still haven’t found what they’re looking for”.

But this really isn’t about U2.  They are just the popular example.  Some of us have found a deep contentment in our faith and/or church.  Others of us have that restless spirit with varying degrees of intensity for varying lengths of time.  All of us are hypocrites from time to time when contrasting what we say Christians should do versus how we actually act.  And so it isn’t always so nice and neat, even for those of us who are content.  Why should we expect differently from those who are a bit more unsettled?

No matter what our state, we don’t always do all the right things or always rightly represent Christ or have all the answers (nor does God always reveal all the answers to us).  Not everything within Christianity is always as befitting as we sometimes think it should be.  And maybe that’s not always a bad thing.  Whatever our lot in life, may God bless us and keep us.