The Spiritual Gospel - From Blindness to Sight

This is part one of a nine part series on the mystery and meaning in the Gospel of John. If the video doesn't play you can find it here.

The Spiritual Gospel - From Blindness to Sight

Each lecture is a chapter in a book I'm working on of the same name. If there's anybody out their who wants to write a book with me, I could sure use the help. Enjoy.

The Trouble with Devotions

A number of years ago, as a youth pastor, I delivered a challenging message to the youth of my church. The occasion: immediately after a particular stirring time of worship. The students had just finished singing songs, professing their love for God. As I stood in front the room, the spiritual feeling that only true worship brings was still evident in the air

"I have a word for you," I told them. "I felt it as we sang. I don't think this youth group loves Christ enough. There's a lot of half hearted people in this room and it needs to stop. So from now on you need to make a commitment to come every Wednesday night. if you can't come every Wednesday then don't bother coming at all."

The students sat stunned in their chairs. All except for one. From the front row I could here Trista agreeing with my every word. "Amen, amen," she said.

I continued. "And I'm tired of seeing people only raise one hand to the Lord in worship. If you can't raise both hands than you're half-hearted. From now on raise both hands or don't raise them at all."

I could see students start to clam up. But good old Trista there in the front row kept right on saying, "amen."

"You need to bring you're bibles to Church. How can you say that you love God if you don't love his word."

Students started shaking theirs heads and I heard some quietly say "no" And there Trista was "amen, amen, amen!"

"No!" I said. I had been playing and sweet hearted Trista had walked right into the trap.

What I wanted to demonstrate is that rules breed rebellion. When told to do something are immediate reaction is to respond, "the hell I will." But all to often our devotions to the Lord, things like prayer, worship and reading the bible, turn from something that we desire to do into a rule that must be followed. And the devotions that we started as a simple demonstration of love for our Lord become something we despise.

This is the trouble with devotions that good things started with right intentions become a burden to bare rather than a blessing to share. This is the struggle that Paul finds himself in in Romans 7

But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death...

God's commandment's when brought against our flesh breeds rebellion in us. This is a trap from which it seems we cannot recover. "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" Paul asks in verse 24.

But Paul has the answer and its the very reason he writes the letter to the Romans. We find this answer in Romans 8 - one of the greatest, if not the greatest chapters in all the Bible. It's worth quoting in full.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation— but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs— heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all— how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died— more than that, who was raised to life— is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God his great gift of love in Jesus Christ, God has taken away the commandment and given us a new spirit which cries to God out of a heart of love and thankfulness for what he has done. Next time you sit down to express your love for Lord examine your heart and ask yourself if you truly want to. If your time with the Lord is not coming from a heart of love. Don't do it because you have to. Do it only because you want to.

Update: The Shack on God and Evil

Just wanted to give those who might have missed it a heads up. Since I began "The Shack on God and Evil" sometime last week, it appeared as if it was older than some of my more recent posts. It is in fact my most recent posting.

Matt

Psalms 90: "Teach Us to Number Our Days"

After offering some brief thoughts on our experience of time (here and here) I found Psalms 91 speaking volumes to me about God's eternity and the limits of my life.

1 You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

3 You turn man back into dust And say, "Return, O children of men."
4 For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch in the night.
5 You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.
6 In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew; Toward evening it fades and withers away.

7 For we have been consumed by Your anger And by Your wrath we have been dismayed.
8 You have placed our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
9 For all our days have declined in Your fury; We have finished our years like a sigh.
10 As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away.
11 Who understands the power of Your anger And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?
12 So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

13 Do return, O LORD; how long will it be? And be sorry for Your servants.
14 O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us, And the years we have seen evil.
16 Let Your work appear to Your servants And Your majesty to their children.
17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; And confirm for us the work of our hands; Yes, confirm the work of our hands.

Another Meditation on Time

The equal markings and consistent tic of the clock teach us to think about the future as something added to the past. Every moment that occurs is a moment added to a series of equal moments. In this we regard time as a pile of beads consistently added to a string. So why does our experience not correspond? Why do we feel time is speeding up? Why does a year at the age of thirty feel shorter than the one at the age of three?

For us time is not equal because we lack proportion in our experience. The present is not a bridge between our future and past. It is always and forever our end. Every moment of everyday our experience of time is in constant completion. I've heard it said, “today is the first day of the rest of your life.” But it's more true to say “today is the last day of the life that we have lived.” Our experience of time is unrelated to what is yet to come. It's defined only in what has been.

Only by knowing the end from the beginning could we ever experience the consistancy of the clock. For only then could we come to a true sense of proportion. But because our experience of time grows in time we are continually remembering the past as longer than it is. Only God knows the objectivity of the clock. And it is thus thinking of our lives in terms of this instrument that we yet again claim to be Him.


Our time is not the clock and the clock is not our time. So instead of thinking of our lives like beads added to an infinite string we should humbly think of our lives as a pie ever-dividing, recognizing that our life is always coming to an end. The clock suggests we can look outside ourselves and see the future as it is. But a pie's continual wholeness recognizes the fullness of that which has been. In the analogy of the pie we see that each passing moment is shorter than the one before. And thus it accuratly reflects our experience. Time, for us, is indeed speeding up.

13 Life Goals

If there is one thing to admire about Benjamin Franklin its his focus and determination. At the age of 20, He wrote down 13 life goals that he would follow for the rest of his life. According to at least one author he was partially motivated by Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." The list he made was as follows:

1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation.


2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.


3. Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.


4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.


5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.


6. Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.


7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.


8. Justice: Wrong none, by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.


9. Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.


10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes or habitation.


11. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; Never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.


12. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.


13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

After making the list he committed to practicing one virtue a week. Following this plan he was able to focus on each viture for 4 seperate weeks throughout the year. He tracked his progress by using a little chart, marking a dot at the end of each day next to the virtue he failed to maintain. Obviously the goal was to make no marks at all. And in time he did enjoy a certain level of success.

I'm now 30 years old, ten years past the age in which Benjamin Franklin began to follow the little list. I know it's not too late to start.

Father, I pray that you might give me the focus and determination to live my life in the manner worthy of your Son.

The Shack on God and Evil

Once again the centeral message of the Shack is an attempt to reconcile God's love and power with the existance of evil. This is no small task. It's a question that has plauged the faithful and philopsophers alike since at least the time of Job. So how does the Shack ease the tension?

Before I answer that quesiton let's look at possible solutions related to the existance of a loving, all-powerful God who allows evil and suffering. Since the tension exists in relation to these three beliefs a solution appears to reside in the modification of one or more of them. Thus one way of easing the tension is to tinker with God's power, a second would be to modifty the meaning of God's love and the third and final option would be to modifty the meaning of evil.

So where does the Shack stand? As I said in my last post, the Shack does not deny the existance of Evil. In fact it's the Shack's graphic depiction of true pain which makes this book so compelling. Mack, the main charachter of the book, is given every reason in the world to believe in a God who is either less than loving or less than powerful. So which does the Shack choose? Does William Young, the author the book, modify our understanding of God's power or does his modify our understanding of God's love?

If you 've read the book I'm sure you can tell.

I think the answer can be found in Mack's dinner conversation with the Trinity. During dinner one member of the Trinty (Papa, Jesus, or Sarayu) ask Mack about his family. At first Mack complies as if the the question was raised by just any friend. But half way through his description he realizes that God should already know.

"Now here I am telling you about my kids and my friends and about Nan, but you already know everything that I am telling you, don't you? You're acting like it's the first time you heard it."

Sarayu reached across the table and took his hand. "Mackenzie, remember our conversation earlier about limitations... Remember that choosing to stay on the ground is a choice to facilitate a relationship; to honor it. Mackenzie, you do this yourself. You don't play a game or color a picture with a child to show your superiority. Rather, you choose to limit yourself so as to facilitate and honor that relationship. You even lose a competetion to accomplish love. It is not about winning and losing, but about love and respect."

"So when I am telling you about my children?"

"We have limited ourselves out of respect for you. We are not bringing to mind, as it were, our knowledge of your children. As we are listening to you, it is as if this is the first time we have known about them, and we take great delight in seeing them through your eyes."

Although this conversation revolves around the issues of why we need to pray, It's clear in this scene that William Young believes that God willingly surrenders his power in order to fully express his love. The Shack dosn't teach that God is powerless to deal with evil rather it teaches that God has willingly surrendered this power in order to enter into a relationship with us.

There's much that's compelling about this solution.

First, it's has biblical support. The heart of the Christian message is that God gave sacraficially, willingly surrendering His power, His Son and His life for the world.

Secondly, it gives us what we most desire. Our need to know God's love is so deep that we're willing to sacrafice almost anything to experience it. And certainly after reading the Shack you feel God's love more.

Third, it explains not only our present situation but gives us a compeling reason why we should pray to a God who already knows our needs.

There is a flip side to these blessing however.

For instance, there are other passages in scripture which firmly establish the power and might of our God. And even the Bible's teaching about Jesus willingly surrendering Himself does not seem to teach that God always does so. God's giving seems limited to the gift of His Son, who by the way is no longer hanging upon a cross, but is seated at the right hand of the Father.

Secondly I must ask, in our rush to modify God's power for his love have we abandoned the God we truly desire to be loved by? The very reason we want to know God's love is precisely because He is the all-powerful God of the universe. When we diminish His power we also diminish Him.

Finally, I must ask is a God who is not willing or able to answer my prayers, a God truly worth praying to. In the scriptures God tells us to pray and expect to receive that which we pray for. But the God of the Shack, diminished in his capacity to perform, seems only content with hearing and not meeting our needs.

The problem of evil is a very difficult issue to address. The Shack has offered a great portrait of the love that God has for us. However in reading it, we must recognize that it is only half of the solution. The Shack has presented us a very clear picture, but it's as if we are only looking at God with one eye. He is the same no matter what we beleive about him but I would rather see all of Him rather than only a part.

What do you think? Is there something I'm missing?

How Do We Witness to a Society that No Longer Feels Guity?

Evangelicals are facing a crisis. How do we share the gospel of Jesus Christ in the modern world? For Christians who are firm believers in the atoning work of Christ, I think it’s difficult to see how the meaning of the cross is not all that apparent to the world around them. As we tout the power of the cross to save, I’m sure unbelievers are scratching their head in bewilderment how the death of a man two thousand years ago makes a hill of beans difference in their postmodern world. And it saves? Saves from what? I think this was central to the division in those that watched the Passion of the Christ. Christians perceived in the events portrayed in the film a universal significance that has the power to change every man, woman and child. Unbelievers saw a man brutalized for two and half hours.

How does one offer the message of Jesus to a world that does not know God? Historically we have looked to ones recognition of sin as a catalyst for sharing the good news found in Jesus Christ. Jonathan Edward’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a good illustration. Edward’s sermon inspired the first Great Awakening. It focused upon the wrath of God waiting to be poured out upon sinners. When Edwards first read the sermon in his little Church in Massachusetts, people began to faint in the audience and cry out with grief at the realization of there own state. This has been the approach of Evangelicals ever sense. Introduce people to the wrath of God against sinners and the hope that is found in Jesus and they will accept Jesus as the means of their salvation every time. This worked well in Edward’s small puritan community where the belief in Judeo-Christian God was axiomatic and like fictional character Hester Pririm in the Scarlet Letter people had to where their sin on there clothing. But what happens when people cease to believe in God or at least a god that is concerned with matters such as right and wrong.

Since the enlightenment, the world has been increasingly moving in that direction. With cosmological discoveries such as those made by Copernicus and Newton, the worlds image of God began to shift from an active present spiritual force that moved the heavens each and every day to a distant clockmaker who wound up his creation and then left it to run. This view of God was more or less an intellectual halfway house between theism and atheism. With the advent of Darwin’s theory of evolution, however, scholars were at last allowed to be as Richard Dawkins has said, "intellectually fulfilled atheists." Invisible deities began to be regarded like Santa Clause. True reality was found in the five senses, tangible empirical experience. Sciences remarkable achievements with its firm belief in the senses have created today a world that trusts in its empirical senses and distrusts things that cannot be tangibly verified. Today whether or not one says they believe in God, for many he has become an absent landlord and or a misguided figment of the imagination.

It’s clear that these beleifs have affected our society. Since the founding of the United States our society has been dominated by the concept of tolerance. However, what it meant in the days of our founding it does not mean the same thing today. Tolerance used to mean the respect two people showed to one another in an argument. This is the foundation of democracy. I am tolerant of your opinion not because you are right but because you are a human being worthy of respect. Debate was fostered by a keen awareness that you are worthy to be persuaded. Today’s tolerance has nothing to do with this former definition and is surprisingly antithetical to its former meaning. Tolerance today is the firm belief that since there is no tangible verification of right then there is no point to debate. Tolerance comes from the belief that there is no right and wrong; no purpose. There are only opinions and nothing more. Today tolerance is found in the absence of meaning and not in debate about it.

What has become of the Evangelical witness in growing spirit of Laze fare? It has become shrill. Witnessing is no longer easy like placing bread before a hungry man. So instead of looking to meet the man’s need we starve him so he eats the bread we give him. Instead of meeting the needs of a society that’s no longer aware of God and his standards the Church has increasingly become the judgmental means of making it aware of its own sin. So instead of being salvation through alleviating guilt the Church has become the sole source of guilt in a society that no longer feels guilty. And thus non-Christians avoid us like the plague.

Sadly we don’t realize that in abandoning belief in something higher than tangible experience unbelievers have begun to suffer from another disease, hopelessness, purposelessness, nihilism. The death of God is the death of meaning. Society ran from the belief in God of absolute truth in part to alleviate itself from guilt but in the process it became mired in an equally depressing reality. If there is no wrong then there is no right if there is no sin then there is no purity. In denying the one they have denied the other. If there is no sin then there is no point, no meaning for ones own existence. If there is no standard then there is nothing to point us in a good or right direction. People still suffer for there sin they simply don’t recognize the meaning of that term. By running from sin they have abandoned all belief in the good, they have abandoned any and all hope of salvation.

The hopelessness are society feels can be seen in their very hunger for entertainment. To free ourselves from the emptiness of living, distraction becomes the number one goal. And the so the cycle continues. We feel nothing so we talk about nothing and the end receive nothing from our experiences. It’s a vicious cycle it’s seems from which we cannot escape.

So how should Evangelicals respond? The first thing is to recognize that Jesus is still the answer. He is the point and purpose for all that is. He is the only one who can free them from the plight in which they find themselves. Secondly we must in part abandon are emphasis on making people recognize their own sin. It’s not our job to convict the world of sin, this is the role of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus frees a sole he will also convict the sinner. It may be a slow process but it will come. Our job is to introduce them to Jesus? He is the meaning, the purpose for which they’ve been seeking.

The Shack as Theodicy

I can't think of a more personal example of evil and the pain it causes then the abduction and murder of a little girl. How can a loving and all-powerful God allow such evil? This is the challenging issue at the heart of the Shack. All books have questions but none are quite so difficult. All books have stakes but none are quite so personal. Because evil things like this occur its easy to conclude that God is either impotent or sadistic. If God is completly loving and evil exists we conclude that He cannot be all-powerful. If God is all-powerful and evil exists then we conclude He cannot be compeltly loving. A problem, therefore, occurs when Christians affirm (1) God's power, (2) God's love and (3)the existance of evil. To this tension the Shack proposes the very personal resolution found in Christianity.

Resolutions to the problem of evil are nothing new. An attempted reconcilation is what is known as a Theodicy. Numerous philosophical solutions to the problem of evil have been proposed. Most are difficult to define but simpler solutions can all too often be emotionally unsatisfying. For instance the book of Job is a simple poetic narrative but the resolution it offers is God telling Job and his accusers to shut up. Buddism teaches that suffering comes from attachment and thus to solve the problem one must cease to desire. Naturalism, the worldview often esposed by those who believe in evolution, simply abandons the whole problem by denying the existance of God. If there's no God then their no evil and thus no problem to be addressed.

This is the beauty of the Shack and the faith from which it's solution dervies. It's solution is emotionally satisfying. The Shack does not waver in its relentless depiction of evil. Evil and suffering are very real and cannot be denied. By embracing the reality of pain, instead of denying it, the Shack invites us to live outside ourselves and fully embrace life in relationship with others. This is the God found in the Shack. Not a distant and sadistic god who takes delight in our pain nor a weak and impotent god who would love to help us if he could. The God of the Shack is the God found in Christ, the God who willing empties himself in love so that we might walk in a true relationship him.

"It's That Good!"

If you haven't already read it I'm sure you'll read it in the near future. The Shack by William Young is taking the world by storm. Published this past summer, the book is already in its third printing. And I can see why.

About three months ago I walked past a bullitin board at Multnomah's library and saw a little flier with a bold endorsement, "this book has the potential to do for this generation what Pilgram's Progress did for its." "WOW!" I thought, "that's a big statement." Between the seventeenth and eighteenth century Pilgrams Progress was the only book that ever came close to outselling the Bible.

I told a co-worker about it. He bought a copy, read it, and then immediatly bought five copies to give to his friends and family. He then loaned his copy to another co-worker and she in turn bought a copy for a friend. When I finally got the book I brought it home and had my wife read it. She so fell in love with it that she emailed the author just to say thank you. Friends and blogs alike, I have heard so many independent endorsments for this book I don't know how it couldn't help but sell. And if that wasn't enough, this past Thursday I heard the greatest endorsment of all.

I work as custody officer in Clark County's Jail. I see a lot that's evil in this world. I see lives destroyed and people who destroy them. It's sad to say my fellow jailers don't see much that's good. Christianity dosen't appear to change much. Christian chaplins come in and all too often are manipulated by the inmates. Inmates who say they are Christians are all to often rearrested. Where I work a real Christ oriented transformation is often hard to find.

But this past Thursday this darkness was broken for at least one officer. Last year two girls in their late teens were killed on Highway 14 when a drunk driver, driving the wrong way on the freeway, slammed into their car headon. The drunk driver, however, lived. At her sentencing, this past week, the father of one of those girls, a VPD officer, stood up and spoke for an hour. He forgave the woman for killing his daughter. And he asked the judge if he could give the woman a gift. With the judges approval, the father handed her the Shake. My co-worker who saw this gesture was so moved that she told another officer, "I have to read that book."