For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. – 1 Corinthians 1:18 (NIV 1984)
Why is the cross foolish? How is it also the power of God? When thinking of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus do you discover hope? Why?
The following is by Timothy George, “Delighted by Doctrine,” Christian History and Biography (Summer 2006):
Judaism has its shema and Islam its shahadah, but Christians, responding to Jesus’ question “Who do you say that I am?” have produced literally thousands of statements of faith across the centuries.
As a capstone to his lifelong interest in the central texts of the Christian faith, Jaroslav Pelikan edited (with Valerie Hotchkiss) Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition, a four-volume critical edition with a one-volume historical and theological guide called simply Credo.
Pelikan’s collection includes several hundred creeds, including the Masai Creed from Nigeria, which Africanizes Christianity by declaring that Jesus “was always on safari doing good.” It also declares that after Jesus had been “tortured and nailed hands and feet to a cross, and died, he lay buried in the grave, but the hyenas did not touch him, and on the third day, he rose from the grave. He ascended unto the skies. He is the Lord.”
This creed was brought to Pelikan’s attention by one of his students, a woman who had been a member of a religious order working in a hospital in East Nigeria. Pelikan wrote, “She brought it to me, and I just got shivers. Just the thought, you know, the hyenas did not touch him, and the act of defiance — God lives even in spite of the hyenas.”
Not only do we believe Jesus died, that God died, but we believe Jesus lives! Yes it is foolish! It is crazy to believe such a thing, but we defiantly proclaim it. Who do we say Jesus is? What parts of our culture does the Christ who changes culture change? Where does God live in spite of death dealers? Now let us proclaim who Jesus is each morning as a confession of faith. Within our confession we say something about the power of God!
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Broken Hearts
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit. – Psalm 34:18 (NIV)
Sometimes we do not need questions to help to think about things. Sometimes we just need to hear good news. This is good news.
This comes from A Turbulent Peace by Ray Waddle
“Religion’s for old people,” my buddy declared as we drove through the countryside. I found his comment a little insulting: I was a churchgoer, age nineteen. Was that so wrong? I lost touch with him; now it’s been twenty-five years since we’ve spoken. But he was on to something. At twenty, the road looks clear all the way to forever. We arrogantly waste time, try a hundred new jobs or relationships or ideologies, believe and fool thing. The heart is not yet broken, not in the way it is when time crashes down on it – soured dreams, career missteps, divorce, illness, the death of loved ones, the passing of so much we love. By old age the ghostly procession of the once-was can be unbearable.
My heroes include any elderly persons who keep the flame lit, who still feel inspiration and outrage at ideas, current events, history, movies, books, national tragedies, spring flowers, the passing parade. Somehow they take it all in. Life enlarges their spirit, becomes fuel for the remaining journey, seasoned with humor, not bitterness. They age with dignity. Part of the dignity is keeping the inevitable heartbreak framed by larger perspectives and by going deeper into the grief, not denying it.
The heart breaks again and again. In the midst of heartbreak God moves ever closer. I saw a sign recently that read, “Faith is not faith until we have nothing else to hold on to.” Someone told me, “We are always trying to reach the place where we do not need faith, but that is when fear kicks in.” Yet when life tears us down and we are left with nothing sometimes all we have is faith… and that is when some of us may realize that is all we need.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
and saves those who are crushed in spirit. – Psalm 34:18 (NIV)
Sometimes we do not need questions to help to think about things. Sometimes we just need to hear good news. This is good news.
This comes from A Turbulent Peace by Ray Waddle
“Religion’s for old people,” my buddy declared as we drove through the countryside. I found his comment a little insulting: I was a churchgoer, age nineteen. Was that so wrong? I lost touch with him; now it’s been twenty-five years since we’ve spoken. But he was on to something. At twenty, the road looks clear all the way to forever. We arrogantly waste time, try a hundred new jobs or relationships or ideologies, believe and fool thing. The heart is not yet broken, not in the way it is when time crashes down on it – soured dreams, career missteps, divorce, illness, the death of loved ones, the passing of so much we love. By old age the ghostly procession of the once-was can be unbearable.
My heroes include any elderly persons who keep the flame lit, who still feel inspiration and outrage at ideas, current events, history, movies, books, national tragedies, spring flowers, the passing parade. Somehow they take it all in. Life enlarges their spirit, becomes fuel for the remaining journey, seasoned with humor, not bitterness. They age with dignity. Part of the dignity is keeping the inevitable heartbreak framed by larger perspectives and by going deeper into the grief, not denying it.
The heart breaks again and again. In the midst of heartbreak God moves ever closer. I saw a sign recently that read, “Faith is not faith until we have nothing else to hold on to.” Someone told me, “We are always trying to reach the place where we do not need faith, but that is when fear kicks in.” Yet when life tears us down and we are left with nothing sometimes all we have is faith… and that is when some of us may realize that is all we need.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Minister's Minute from September Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy
This month, like a couple of others when I have had to write this monthly piece, has been trying for me. Some times I just do not know what to write. I am preacher, not a writer. However the deadline loomed 5 days ago, and something must be written.
Let me start with a lyric from the band Mumford and Sons. “But hold on to what you believe in the light. When darkness has robbed you of all your sight.”
I came home from work the other day and said hello to my family in the usual way. Sometimes I feel very much like a stereotypical family man, and while a younger version of me would be nauseated at the idea, today I quite like being a family man. I kissed my wife and the baby she was holding. I had to find my son who was hiding simply by covering his eyes. All was right and I was happy.
Like other families I heard stories of what the children did when I was away. The girl is smiling now. Her mother can play a little game with her and her face will light up with joy that cannot be taught, but simply exists waiting for us to take it… or at least to acknowledge it. Then my wife said, “And Langston did the cutest thing!”
“Oh really?” I asked, “What’s that?”
“I was sitting on the couch feeding the baby when he marches into the room with his flashlight on,” she tells me. “I asked him, ‘What are you doing?’ and he tells me, ‘Looking for the dark mommy.’” We laughed together as I imagined my son walking around in the fullness of day looking for darkness to illuminate.
Then as I sat with that image I wondered if there was not incredible truth some mixed with a boy’s play. He holds the light, and he knows the purpose of light. Light makes darkness go away. Perhaps my profession insists that I spiritualize his play, or perhaps his play forces me to become more spiritual.
Paul once wrote to a group of people frightened by the darkness that reached for them, “you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.” It was his way of reminding them that even though dark days loom ahead, even though evil would try its hardest, and even though sometimes we feel lost we are not. For we are heirs of salvation, purchased by God and thereby children of light.
In my little boy’s playtime he gave voice to a great truth. It is not darkness that can overtake light; it is light that overtakes darkness. Jesus once preached, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Perhaps he could have added a story about a boy with a flashlight that goes looking to eliminate darkness.
Darkness still saturates our lives, our families, our communities and our world. There are those who believe that it will win. Perhaps during the rough and tough days of life we wonder if the light is gone completely. It is then that we must remember what we believed in the light. If darkness has somehow robbed us of all our sight hold on to the belief that we share of Jesus. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not over come it.”
A friend of mine told me that he was quite afraid of dark as a child, a little more so than even normal. During a prayer meeting at his church his parents informed the people gathered that he was scared of the dark. He was not mocked or told it was silly to be afraid of the dark. Instead those who carried light surrounded him and prayed that he would know himself as a child of the light, as the beloved of God, as someone the darkness cannot touch. It was as though someone with a flashlight went looking for darkness in order that it would disappear.
Oh that we all would carry such lights… I imagine the world would change.
Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett
Let me start with a lyric from the band Mumford and Sons. “But hold on to what you believe in the light. When darkness has robbed you of all your sight.”
I came home from work the other day and said hello to my family in the usual way. Sometimes I feel very much like a stereotypical family man, and while a younger version of me would be nauseated at the idea, today I quite like being a family man. I kissed my wife and the baby she was holding. I had to find my son who was hiding simply by covering his eyes. All was right and I was happy.
Like other families I heard stories of what the children did when I was away. The girl is smiling now. Her mother can play a little game with her and her face will light up with joy that cannot be taught, but simply exists waiting for us to take it… or at least to acknowledge it. Then my wife said, “And Langston did the cutest thing!”
“Oh really?” I asked, “What’s that?”
“I was sitting on the couch feeding the baby when he marches into the room with his flashlight on,” she tells me. “I asked him, ‘What are you doing?’ and he tells me, ‘Looking for the dark mommy.’” We laughed together as I imagined my son walking around in the fullness of day looking for darkness to illuminate.
Then as I sat with that image I wondered if there was not incredible truth some mixed with a boy’s play. He holds the light, and he knows the purpose of light. Light makes darkness go away. Perhaps my profession insists that I spiritualize his play, or perhaps his play forces me to become more spiritual.
Paul once wrote to a group of people frightened by the darkness that reached for them, “you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.” It was his way of reminding them that even though dark days loom ahead, even though evil would try its hardest, and even though sometimes we feel lost we are not. For we are heirs of salvation, purchased by God and thereby children of light.
In my little boy’s playtime he gave voice to a great truth. It is not darkness that can overtake light; it is light that overtakes darkness. Jesus once preached, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Perhaps he could have added a story about a boy with a flashlight that goes looking to eliminate darkness.
Darkness still saturates our lives, our families, our communities and our world. There are those who believe that it will win. Perhaps during the rough and tough days of life we wonder if the light is gone completely. It is then that we must remember what we believed in the light. If darkness has somehow robbed us of all our sight hold on to the belief that we share of Jesus. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not over come it.”
A friend of mine told me that he was quite afraid of dark as a child, a little more so than even normal. During a prayer meeting at his church his parents informed the people gathered that he was scared of the dark. He was not mocked or told it was silly to be afraid of the dark. Instead those who carried light surrounded him and prayed that he would know himself as a child of the light, as the beloved of God, as someone the darkness cannot touch. It was as though someone with a flashlight went looking for darkness in order that it would disappear.
Oh that we all would carry such lights… I imagine the world would change.
Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett
In and Out of Season
Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. – 2 Timothy 4:2 (NIV)
How do you preach the word? Do you believe you are called to such a thing? What does it mean to be prepared in and out of season? Have you corrected someone? Rebuked someone? Encouraged someone? Have you been corrected, rebuked or encouraged?
The following story is an Aesop Fable called “The Horse and His Rider”:
A horse soldier took the utmost pains with his charger. As long as the war lasted, he looked upon him as his fellow-helper in all emergencies and fed him carefully with hay and corn. But when the war was over, he only allowed him chaff to eat and made him carry heavy loads of wood, subjecting him to much slavish drudgery and ill-treatment.
War was again proclaimed, however, and when the trumpet summoned him to his standard, the soldier put on his charger its military accouterments, and mounted, being clad in his heavy coat of mail. The horse fell down right away under the weight, no longer equal to the burden, and said to his master, “You must now go to the war on foot, for you have transformed me from a horse into an ass; and how can you expect that I can again turn in a moment from an ass to a horse.”
Toward the end of his life Jesus shared a story about 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom and falling asleep. Half brought oil and half did not. As the story goes the bridegroom was long in coming and they all fell asleep. He arrived at the midnight hour and the half without oil found out they were not ready. These parables about being prepared share a great truth of life. We never know when we will be needed to participate in the Gospel! Keep reading up on scriptures, keep praying and studying, keep practicing because one day Jesus will need us. Let us pray that we are ready.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
How do you preach the word? Do you believe you are called to such a thing? What does it mean to be prepared in and out of season? Have you corrected someone? Rebuked someone? Encouraged someone? Have you been corrected, rebuked or encouraged?
The following story is an Aesop Fable called “The Horse and His Rider”:
A horse soldier took the utmost pains with his charger. As long as the war lasted, he looked upon him as his fellow-helper in all emergencies and fed him carefully with hay and corn. But when the war was over, he only allowed him chaff to eat and made him carry heavy loads of wood, subjecting him to much slavish drudgery and ill-treatment.
War was again proclaimed, however, and when the trumpet summoned him to his standard, the soldier put on his charger its military accouterments, and mounted, being clad in his heavy coat of mail. The horse fell down right away under the weight, no longer equal to the burden, and said to his master, “You must now go to the war on foot, for you have transformed me from a horse into an ass; and how can you expect that I can again turn in a moment from an ass to a horse.”
Toward the end of his life Jesus shared a story about 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom and falling asleep. Half brought oil and half did not. As the story goes the bridegroom was long in coming and they all fell asleep. He arrived at the midnight hour and the half without oil found out they were not ready. These parables about being prepared share a great truth of life. We never know when we will be needed to participate in the Gospel! Keep reading up on scriptures, keep praying and studying, keep practicing because one day Jesus will need us. Let us pray that we are ready.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
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