PhoenixPreacher

1. C.S Lewis : “It is a serious thing . . . to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”

2. It is impossible to overestimate C.S. Lewis influence on modern Christian thought. It is a sad fact however, that had Lewis been born fifty years later and written in our era, he would be dismissed as a heretic and compromiser of the highest sort. His brilliance would have been buried under piles of criticism by people unworthy to sharpen his pencil. I cannot help but wonder how many Lewis’s are smothered under those piles today…

3. We’ve lost the ability to read any theology with true discernment. I’m not talking about some mystical (non existent, made up in the fevered imagination) “gift of discernment”, but the ability to separate wheat from chaff and celebrate wheat. Every great theologian also trades in chaff now and then…

4. Had Eugene Peterson not retracted his support of gay marriage,my response would have been a resounding snore. What I’ve learned from Peterson is true and valuable and it’s still true and valuable even if he’s wrong about some other things…like the rest of us are…

5. You will never grow in grace or knowledge if you demand that every teacher check all the boxes on your holy checklist. You simply create a list of people your sect approves of…

6. Whenever I see an argument on Facebook lamenting that some politician is opposing “we the people” , I want to remind the person that whichever side they’re on they’re only talking about half of “we the people”…

7. Most folks today don’t engage in theological discussions to learn, but to be affirmed in what they think they already think they know. It’s like taking the third grade over and over again…

8. Whenever you have a physical issue that causes intense pain, approximately half the people you share with will tell you what they went through that really hurt…

9. I’ll say it again…we’re no longer looking for solutions to our political and cultural issues, but victories over perceived enemies. Which means that we have already lost…

10. If they will know us by our love, we have either redefined love or chosen to live in disguise…

Matthew 24:12-28

¹² And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

People do get discouraged looking at all the bad news – this is why I got rid of cable TV.

• Peter stands up to say that he would never deny Jesus and he did and he ran.
• In the garden they could not even stay awake and pray with him – and then they scattered.
• So to the Jews hearing this message (and even the disciples were Jews) what were they to think? They remembered when the prophets of old spoke about how Israel would fall away, that they would be taken into exile, that the temple would be destroyed – in Ezekiel the glory of the Lord departed.
• The Jew would think “it’s all over and we are done as a nation.” So as far as they were concerned, this must be the end.
• So when the prophets prophesied the judgment of Israel and the judgment of the world and God setting up a messianic kingdom fulfilling the promise of sending the savior – they think it is all happening at once — and it doesn’t.

¹³ But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

• So that we / they would not despair he says this (v.13 & 14)

¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

• So Jerusalem will be destroyed and the end will come – so what is he speaking of? All of the above.

The Abomination of Desolation

¹⁵ “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),

• You must know your Old Testament at this point, and I must stay abbreviated here for time – Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11
• Daniel is writing his prophecy when Messiah would come there would be a kingdom that precedes Christ’s kingdom.
• The main character for this abomination was Antiochus Epiphany 3^rd.
• Daniel lived in the time of the Babylonians, then came the Persians, followed by Alexander the Great who conquered the world. When he dies his kingdom id divided into 4 kingdoms – one is eventually run by Antiochus Epiphany 3^rd–
• Through holocaust he tries to destroy his enemy the Jews – and the short story is that he sacrifices pork on the altar of the temple.
• This is the Abomination of Desolation. He is the foretaste of the anti Christ.
• So what is Jesus warning of? And what about that statement – Let the reader understand – who said this, Jesus or Matthew?
• I think Jesus is saying – “when you see it, you will know what I was talking about.

¹⁶ then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

• When you see this sign – run!
• This is what many Christians had to do to survive – they ran off to Peraea, called Pella.

¹⁷ Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house,

¹⁸ and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak.

¹⁹ And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days!

• These verses can be summarized by “get out of Dodge fast!”

²⁰ Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.

• Just pray that nothing slows you down. I wonder if the Sabbath allows you to save your life and family’s lives?

²¹ For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.

• The line of distinction is not clear. Is he speaking of the fall of Jerusalem or is he speaking of the last day?

²² And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

• Hidden under all of this doom and gloom is God’s deliverance.
• The years of 66 – 70 AD were so terrible that we see what the Romans were capable of doing to people.
• Also what the Jewish people did to themselves, those who were trapped in the city itself – starvation, cannibalism and murder.
• The legend is that there were no trees left around Jerusalem because the Romans crucified so many people.

²³ Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.

²⁴ For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

• Who does your pastor point towards? Himself or Christ?
• False prophets can be very convincing – most of them have their own “christian churches”.

²⁵ See, I have told you beforehand.

• I think everything Jesus warns about is before hand. Jesus is not one to say ‘I told you so.’

²⁶ So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.

²⁷ For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

• This is truth – when Jesus comes, you will not need to be told.

²⁸ Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

• The false prophets usually show up when there is a void in the real church.
• When the church allows itself to die, when it starts to stink, then the hucksters show up.

I take great pride in being tough, so when the nurse asked me if I wanted a painkiller I declined.

However, pride is a sin and my sin found me out and I soon hit the red button to call the nurse back to accept her offer.

I’m not as tough as I thought I was.

The nurse was not angry that I changed my mind….in fact she knew I would.

Pain had crushed my will and made me a compliant patient.

Unfortunately, that’s how life works most of the time.

One of my favorite sayings in counseling is “when pain exceeds payoff, positive change occurs”.

When something hurts more than whatever pleasure you get from doing that something, you’ll stop doing it.

A great deal of counseling is simply waiting for pain to exceed payoff in the one being counseled.

Usually, the pain has to be intense…we’re not always the sharpest knives in the drawer.

Pain is actually both a gift from God and a result of the fall.

It’s a sign that something is wrong in either body or soul or both.

You can ignore it and hope it goes away or you can acknowledge it and deal with the problem.

I usually choose to ignore it.

I don’t want to take the painkiller or see the physician.

I don’t, that is, until the pain becomes unbearable.

Then, I want both right now.

“Oh God make speed to save us”

“Oh Lord make haste to help us”

He was waiting for you to ask…

My pain is from something that needs to be cut out.

Yours might be too.

I waited.

You shouldn’t.

Make your own application…

Gay marriage and LGBT issues seemingly command our media and culture today.  It has been like this for several years now.  Conspicuously all the more so when applying these topics to the church. 

There appears to be a great desire for many to find out where each and every church and pastor and Christian stands on these issues. 

For some progressives, there is the aggressive desire to find out who the loving and tolerant are, and who the haters are.  For some conservatives, there is the consuming desire to find out who is standing strong in the orthodox faith, and who are the unholy compromisers.  And the church as a whole is engulfed by one big culture war.  Sometimes the church is a willful and active participant.

Now gay marriage and LGBT matters are the predominant topic on many days.  But there are, of course, other issues that feed into our culture wars.  Abortion and religious freedom and guns and immigration and health care, amongst others, are all battled about.  Depending upon the topic, one side or the other will often claim the moral high ground, sometimes with both sides simultaneously asserting the greater righteousness.

Now, not all people and organizations are driven by culture wars.  While some see great importance in winning political battles on these issues, others eschew any semblance of any such war.  Yet, in today’s world, it would seem next to impossible to avoid them completely.  Unless one goes completely in a shell and refuses to ever utter an opinion on any hot-topic item, people are going to be drug into a war, willingly or not, simply by expressing a belief on any said issue.

So where does that leave the church?  Churches and their pastors and leaders are to preach the Gospel and the Word of God.  By doing so, there are going to be times of overlap with culture war issues of the day.  Some maybe more directly than others.  The church can avoid intentionally focusing on or overemphasizing these issues, but they are going to come up from time to time.  If not by the church itself, then by outsiders who request/demand that the church and/or its leaders give answers to their inquiries.

Some issues seem to embroiling more and more within the church itself, with some portions of the church abandoning orthodoxy and traditional church teaching while other portions obsess about speaking to the truth and depravity of certain choice sins while displaying very little love or compassion.  Therefore, we can leave outside culture completely out of it and we’ve got some serious issues to deal with in house as a church family.  (Although, in some regards, the influences and pressures of our culture have contributed to these things becoming issues within the church in the first place.)

So the church, which we all know is pretty much the exact opposite of a monolith unit, has plenty of moralistic matters it needs to deal with just within itself.  As these issues are being dealt with, how does this then translate as to how the church, or Christians as individuals, are to relate to the culture at large?  If a church will not affirm same-sex marriage or homosexual behavior, how should it and its members interact with a surrounding culture that more and more says these things are good and should be universally accepted and sanctioned by the state?  If a church is against abortion, how should it and its members operate within a culture that allows for abortion?  If a church believes the alien and widow and poor are to be cared for, how should it and its members work within their society to try to make this happen?

Certainly the church should be first concerned with being in alignment with God’s teachings and God’s will on these issues.  Some issues would seem to be easier to discern based on Scripture and all the years of established church teaching and orthodoxy, while other issues may be more complicated and not quite as clear.  Whatever the church discerns on these issues, they should teach and demonstrate to their members as is appropriate.  How should the church and its members then interact within society on these things?

Placing one’s head in the sand and just ignoring the culture is not an appropriate reaction.  But neither is trying to win a holy war and conquering the culture to be wholly in submission to the church.  I may say it is no skin off my back if two women want and do get married to each other.  But then at the same time, if the culture starts pushing on my school age daughters that it is okay for them to romantically like other girls and encourages them to experiment and tells them its okay if they want to marry another girl, then I cannot just sit idly by as I believe these things to be wrong.  All the more so if schools in their structures and teaching are encouraging these things.  I certainly need to instruct my daughters in what is right, but how should I and the church go about protecting my daughters from the teachings and pressures of this conceived corruption?  And how should I and the church go about protecting others from these troubles and also influencing the culture to follow God’s ways, as it will only end up being better and healthier for everyone to do so?

We can replace the example in the previous paragraph with plenty of other issues and end up with similar questions.  What about a complicated issue like health care?  What can and should I and the church do to see that people are cared for, most especially the poor and downtrodden?  Beyond what we can and should do individually and locally to help those in need, to what degree should we be trying to influence our culture to see that this action takes place?

The elephant in the room in this discussion is to what degree should we and the church get involved politically to try to see good accomplished and morality to be upheld in our culture?  Again, some want to completely eschew politics, but that would seem to be too simplistic.  Even the most basic and prioritized task of the church, that of proclaiming the Gospel, will have political implications within the culture.  Thus, we have to deal with politics to at least some degree.

I am not one to clamor to be a culture war warrior.  In today’s environment, to fight the culture wars seems to so often mean making one’s bed with a political party or affiliation or politician and to be intensely supportive of said person or group and to disregard all their troubling aspects while maintaining a laser focus on demeaning and defeating all others who are “against” you.  With as much dirt and corruption as there exists with both major political parties and most politicians and political organizations, I believe it is often wrongful to declare any one party or politician as the “Christian” choice and to disparage those who do not see it that way.  Unequivocally hitching our ride to any one politician or political party is not the prudent manner in which to act.

But if we are concerned with the treatment of not only our friends and family and loved ones, but with humanity as a whole, we will need to speak and even sometimes take action within our culture on what we believe to be right and God-honoring.  And often that speech and accompanying actions will have political implications.  Each and every one of us is in different circumstances of life and so what God would have for each will vary from person to person.  God may have plans for some to become more politically active than others.

As for the church, it needs to stand for truth and sometimes that truth will have unavoidable political ramifications.  I do not believe the church should set out to be intentionally political or combative or to disproportionately focus on pet issues.  And its alertness on showing compassion and aiming to help those struggling in these issues should be just as strong, if not even possibly stronger, as its fastidiousness in speaking the truth.  But there are times when the church will need to and should speak to the truth of issues.  Issues that sometimes can be hot-button topics in our culture.

I have given some opinions but have also asked some questions.  Questions that, at least in my mind, do not have simple or easily ascertained answers.  As I am apt to conclude many of my writings, I implore God to give us wisdom and compel us to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly as we think through and act on these matters.            

Since the internet blowup of Eugene Peterson, I’ve received a number of emails that all go something like this;

“I’ve noticed you have not made a clear statement of your own views on same sex relationships and you waffle on the issue when you do say something. Is this because you’re an Anglican now? What is your position?”

Here’s my position.

After lots of reading and lots of study I am unpersuaded that the historical view of the church regarding marriage and sexual relationships is in error.

I affirm the historic Christian view and the historical moral theology of the church on this issue.

Having said that, I’m also a pastor.

There are gay people and people who struggle with same sex attraction that read this blog.

Some of them are very broken and fragile people.

None of them are “militants”.

I care about them.

I am utterly unconvinced that continual condemnation will result in their sanctification.

I want to maintain relationships and demonstrate the love and patience of God to them.

I don’t give a damn about checking off the doctrinal boxes for the sake of taking my place in the culture wars.

Frankly, I deal with about a thousand times more “straight” moral failure…

The part of the Anglican communion I’m seeking to join is one that split off from the main body over these issues and affirms the tradition view of the Christian church.

That should cover all the questions…