Ora et Labora

There is a saying that floats around the Christian community that deals with work and prayer. The saying is “When we work, we work; When we pray, God works”. I’ve been thinking about this statement the last couple of weeks for a number of reasons including the hit that North American churches often take for not being prayerful enough or as someone somewhere said, “It’s amazing what American churches can get done without prayer” (this was not said positively).
So is it true that when we work, we work, but when we pray God works? As far as I can tell this statement is based on faulty theology and faulty piety. The idea that when we work, we work misses completely the truth of the scriptures that when we work it is God who at work through us. Jesus makes this clear in John 15.“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4 when he speaks of our being given gifts by the Spirit to carry out the work of God in the world. Romans 10 speaks of the powerful way that God works through people when it insists, “11 As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
God works through us to bring his message to the world, to renew communities in ways that reflect his coming kingdom, and so much more.
Now some may argue that we go off in our own power to do these things, while in prayer we rely on the power of God to do things. It is true we can go off trying to do things in our own power, but Jesus tells us that these things will not bear fruit. Our fruit comes from our connection to God. In another sense we could say something similar about prayer. Our prayers can be just as insincere and focused on accomplishing our goals rather than God’s goals as when we try to get things done on our own.
There is also in the “when we work, we work; when we pray God works” idea a faulty piety. It holds that a truly pious person prays, while the less pious person just works. But no where that I can think of do we find that prayer is held up as a more spiritual position and action than working for the kingdom. Indeed, when one reflects on the life of a pious person a picture of work is often at the forefront. From the “Noble Woman” of Proverbs 31 to the call to “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God” to Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 2.9-10, “...likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works...”, we find that a pious person works.
Certainly prayer and piety go together, prayer and godliness go together, but more importantly prayer and work go together. The Latin phrase has it right “Ora et Labora”, pray and work. The two are a package and through them God does his work in the world. To lift prayer (or work) above the other truncates God’s desire for a full-orbed life.

Osama Bin Laden, Love Wins, and the Scandal of Grace

The news is buzzing with the reports of the death of Osama Bin Laden by U.S. Special forces. The cheers at the new of his death have been loud, the declaration that justice has been done is everywhere.
As I have been reflecting on the death of Bin Laden I couldn’t help but make a connection to Rob Bell’s book Love Wins. Whether or not you agree with Rob (I haven’t read the book yet, only multiple reviews) his basic premise is that there are second chances to accept Christ and end up with him for all eternity. Finally, God’s love will have his way with us.
This all sounds wonderful until we bump into Osama Bin Laden. Here is someone that people want to have rot in Hell for all he has done, they don’t want any second chances. Where is the justice in Bin Laden dying, getting to Hell and 15 minutes later seeing Jesus Christ, his love and wanting it, accepting it and being released from his punishment into an eternity with Christ? “He needs to pay for his crimes” is the cry we might very well hear from the lips of Americans and from the lips of all who suffered from his atrocities. Let good people get a second chance, but not Bin Laden.
However, when you think about it, this is exactly the scandal of grace. That people like Bin Laden, people like you and me are accepted not because we are good, but because Christ took our punishment in his place. If Bin Laden, like the thief on the cross, would have given his life to Christ as the bullet came toward him he would have heard the same words as the thief on the cross, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” This is absolutely scandalous and it is absolutely the hope and wonder of the gospel.
This reality also makes us wonder all the more at the cross and what Christ must have suffered there. We know what people want for someone like Bin Laden, we know the kind of punishment that is deserved, we also know that people like Bin Laden have become followers of Christ and had their sins taken on the shoulders of Christ. What was it like to bear that level of wrath against sin on the cross? What was it like to bear the wrath of God against our sin on the cross? It is good for us to remember that as horrified we are by what Bin Laden did, so what we have done in the eyes of a holy God is also a thing of horror and deserving punishment, a punishment taken by Christ.
The scandal of grace is that another pays for our sins, even the worst of our sins, even the sins of the worst of sinners. So will Bin Laden get a second change to experience this grace? Rob Bell seems to think so, I’m not sure from what I’ve seen of his book that his case has as strong of merit as he wants it to have. But even without that second chance grace remains a scandal--and the only hope we have.

Jude 3: Teaching and Loving

Jude 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Jude 3 brings us up close and personal with Jude’s love for this church. He, like God, loves this group of people and wants the best for them. In this longing for what is best we find echoes of Jesus who when he saw the crowds and their needs met their needs in an unexpected way, namely, he taught them. We read in Mark 6.34 “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.” What is best for the people is that Jesus teach them truth. They are like sheep without a shepherd. They have no one to guide them in the way of truth (The failure of the leaders of Israel to shepherd the people fills the Old Testament e.g. Ezekiel 34). Jude, like Jesus, wants the best for these people and the best means shepherding them by teaching them so that their faith is deepened (in terms of knowledge and commitment).

This emphasis on teaching is a powerful reminder in our anti-intellectual culture that we need to know the truth of God to live the faith well. N.T. Wright in his book Scripture and the Authority of God points out that one of the central places to gather this truth is in sermon, “...sermons are supposed to be ‘audible sacraments’. They are not simply for the conveying of information, though that is important in a world increasingly ignorant of some of the most basic biblical and theological information. They are not simply for exhortation, still less for entertainment. They are supposed to be one of the moments in regular Christian living when heaven and earth meet. Speaker and hearers alike are called to be people in whom, by the work of the Spirit, God's word is once again audible to the heart as well as to the ears. Preaching is one key way in which God's personal authority, vested in scripture and operative through the work of the Spirit, is played out in the life of the church.” Wright’s words are somewhat surprising. Little did most of us realize that in the preaching of the Word heaven and earth meet. It’s a good reminder for me, whether preaching or listening, to be attentive and prepared to participate in this awesome time when heaven and earth meet."

Wright’s words are somewhat surprising. Little did most of us realize that in the preaching of the Word heaven and earth meet. It’s a good reminder for me, whether preaching or listening, to be attentive and prepared to participate in this awesome time when heaven and earth meet.

What's a Blessing For -- Jude 2

What gives strength to a person and to a community? Jude is about to enter into a hard conversation with people who have liars, deceivers, and destroyers of community in their midst. Living in this environment they need strength. Jude offers that strength in terms of a blessing:

May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Jude 2

A blessing of mercy, peace and love. A blessing is a prayer for God to give something to a person or to a people. But it is also much more than that. When done rightly a Biblical blessing is given by one of God’s representatives. This means that no one less than God himself stands behind the blessing. It is God who will bring to fruition the blessing that his spokesperson has pronounced. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament says, “In general, the blessing is transmitted from the greater to the lesser. Its major function seems to have been to confer (i.e. grant or bestow) abundant and effective life upon something or someone.”
Jude, as God’s representative, is bestowing an abundant life of more and more mercy, peace, and love. Mercy speaks of God’s loyalty and lovingkindness toward his people (in the Old Testament mercy refers to God’s covenant faithfulness). In the New Testament Jesus most often shows mercy by bringing all different kinds of healing into people’s lives. In a situation where the people are struggling God assures them of his loyalty to them and his tenderness toward them. The blessing is one of mercy and peace. Peace is about God giving his people security, safety, prosperity and happiness--it is the promise of a full life. In the Old Testament peace or shalom was pictured as each man under his own vine and fig tree. The New Testament does not shy away from giving a full-orbed picture of God’s shalom (both physical and spiritual fullness), but it always holds that complete peace comes only with the return of Christ and our concern needs to be first with God’s kingdom even if it means we have to sacrifice some physical fullness (see 1 Timothy 6 and Hebrews 10.32ff). But even in this sacrifice we can find the fullest life possible on earth as we live blessed by God’s peace. The blessing is mercy, peace, and love. Love is God’s unfailing giving of himself for his children.
This blessing gives strength to the community Jude writes to and to us. For the blessings we read in the Scripture are blessings that are ours. Ours not only because we read them and take the words in with joy, but because these blessings are spoken over us at the end of worship services. John Calvin once said it was worth going to worship just to hear the blessing given. Sometimes people make a dash for the exits during the last song in a worship service--it is a sad mistake, for they are missing the blessing of God conferred on them and the community. A blessing of mercy, peace, and love.

A little word, A Big Change

Jude 1.1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ...

When I was in middle school one of my favorite things to do was to play football at night under the lights that illuminated the front area of a local church. My friends and I would play until our fingers were cold and we had done too much damage to that church’s front yard. Somewhere in the midst of our game I was sure to hear the voice of my mom calling me to leave the game behind and head home (we lived next door, a good shout or three would get me home). When I heard that voice I knew (although I would not have put it in these terms in middle school) that I was being called out of one thing and into another. I was moving from playing a game and hanging with my friends to doing homework, getting read for bed, and being with family.

Jude in his tightly packed first verse tells us that we have been called. Like my calling on those cool autumn nights God’s calling calls us out of one place and into another (see also 1 Peter 2.9-10). What we may miss in this concept of call is that God is not simply calling us out of one state into another state, in other words, he is not calling us out of being unforgiven to being forgiven. Instead, God, like my mom, is calling us to a new place. Through the good news of Jesus Christ he is calling us out of our present way of life and into his kingdom, he is calling us out of the people we are presently a part of and into being part of the new people of God.

This calling changes us in dramatic ways. We now begin to live the values of the kingdom. When we are part of this kingdom we see far beyond our own salvation and into the great plan of God to redeem the cosmos. Our lives become part of this overarching goal of God’s redemptive plan. As N.T. Wright reminds us, “...in Scripture itself God’s purpose is not to just save human beings, but to renew the whole world. This is the unfinished story in which readers of Scripture are invited to become actors in their own right.” Not only do we begin to live the values of the kingdom we become part of a new people, the people of God, the church. We become committed to this community where we strive to love, honor, and care for one another. And we discover that our commitment to the community we were called out of calls for our commitment in new ways. We are committed to that community and the people in it to help them see the wonders of God’s kingdom, to serve them in ways that enhance the kingdom, and to invite them to hear God’s call.

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called...”

Unexpected Closeness

Jude 1

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ...

The first verse of Jude continues to surprise. If we’ve been reading the Bible for a while we may smooth over the surprises in our minds replacing unexpected words with expected ones, but it is the unexpected that brings new ways of seeing things. Here is another unexpected: Jude tells us that we are “beloved in God the Father”. Our expected reading is, “We are loved by God the Father” (the NIV smooths over this unexpected by translating it that way). What does it mean that we are beloved in God the Father? Most likely Jude is upping the intimacy level between God and the body of believers. Those whom God loves are taken into an intimate fellowship with him, the community is embraced and enfolded by God’s love. This kind of embracing has echoes of Paul describing the church (not individual believers) as the bride of Christ in Ephesians 5.²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷ so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. ²⁸ In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ³⁰ because we are members of his body. ³¹ “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” ³² This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. The profound mystery is not only the unity of husband and wife becoming one flesh, but also how Christ and his bride, the church, are one.

The intimacy of the Father and the church and the intimacy of Christ and the church startle us because of the closeness and because the intimacy speaks to the importance of the church. In our culture the church is seen as an optional, voluntary organization that we join for what benefit we can get and leave when it no longer suits us. But what if being a part of the body of believers means being brought into intimate fellowship with God, that it is in this body that we are embraced and enfolded by God’s love?

On C.S. Lewis, Fairy Tales, and Sarah Palin

A great article by the head of Walden Media on why C.S. Lewis believed reading fairy tales is absolutely essential for a well-lived life.

Jude, God's Love, and Community

The book of Jude packs as important message in its few verses. The first verse, as we noticed last week, makes a radical statement about our being servants, but the radical notions of Jude don't end there.

Jude 1
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,
To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ...

The words, "To those who are called, beloved in God the Father..." are words that challenge our individualism. The love of God is first of all not for individuals but for a people called out of darkness and into his marvelous light. The words always assume a community of faith, a people who are called out to become part of a new community. There is no notion, understanding, or even room for a person to believe that he/she is a Christian by him/herself. Jude would not comprehend nor condone the idea that as long as I have my relationship with Jesus all is well. God's people are a called out people, a people who are to form and be part of community. What may surprise us even more is that there is only one place in all of the New Testament where we find love individualized: Paul, in the book of Galatians, talks about himself and says that God loved him and gave himself for him. Other than that one time God's love is spoken in the context of community. The reality of the words of Jude and pretty much everywhere else this topic comes up in the New Testament tells us we need to have a strong focus on the community when we speak of God's love (think of Paul's words in Romans 5.8, "--but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us."). We can only imagine what would change in our lives and in our community of faith if we began to speak in ways and believe in ways that reflected "Christ died for us" rather than our overwhelming focus on "Christ died for me".

Babette's Feast

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Heart of an Artist
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Jude, that strange book

Just before the book of Revelation there is one of the shortest books in the Bible: Jude. For being short it is one of the most interesting books in the Bible and leaves one with a lot of questions. I thought it would be worthwhile to take a closer look at this book and discover how it can shape us. For the next weeks I will be doing a once a week post on Jude.

The Opening:

¹ Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

² May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

The very first fun fact in the book of Jude is that his real name (in the Greek) is Judas. In reality this should be the book of Judas but long ago church leaders were concerned about attributing a book to Judas (even though this Jude is obviously not the one who betrayed Jesus) so they shorted the book's name to Jude.

The idea that Jude is a servant of Jesus Christ carries two different and opposite ideas. The first idea is powerfully countercultural. The Greeks valued freedom highly. One book describing this desire for freedom says, "Greeks have a strong sense of freedom. Personal dignity consists of freedom. There is thus a violent aversion to bondage. Service may be rendered to the state, but by free choice. Slavery is scorned and rejected. This explains the fierceness with which the Greeks fought for political independence. The only slavery Plato will allow is to the laws." Jude's willingness to be a servant of Jesus puts him at odds with his culture as he willingly lives under the rule of and for the purposes of another. Since we in our day live in light of what the Greeks considered important we live in a culture that also highly values freedom. To put ourselves in submission or servanthood to Christ is not something that comes easily and to some seems just plain foolish and weak. Second and opposite, to be a servant of Christ is a high honor since one is a servant of the King of kings. This understanding of being God's servant finds its roots in the Old Testament in the life of people such as Moses. When Moses is called God's servant it is a mark of honor.

The question facing us is, "How will we view servanthood?" Is it something that robs us because we live under the rule and for another or do we see it as a mark of honor because we serve the King of kings? How we see servanthood will both shape how we live our lives and the joy we have as we serve.

My Best Gift

During the Christmas season one of the best gifts I received was a letter from my son Chris. The letter, which a friend helped him write, talks about his response to my biking accident this past summer. Several people who have seen the letter encouraged me to share it with the congregation. So here it is:

Dad,
I love you and appreciate you. It was hard for me when I heard about your accident from mom. Immediately my hands were shaking and I felt sick. Over the next few days I spent my time with Grandma, Grandpa, and friends worrying about your health. I was so excited when I finally saw you in a wheelchair at Mary Free Bed. It scared me, but I was happy that you were alive. I had a balloon, picture, and a “welcome home” sign ready for you when you came home. I was so happy you were home, but scared that you couldn’t walk and that you had the halo on. I still think you looked like a guy from Star Trek. The first time you preached with Tom I was crying and was really happy to see you up on stage. I’m so glad that you are walking today. I know this was a hard summer, but we made it through together.

Love,
Chris