Apr
22
Exegesis and lovers
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Exegesis is what I do. I bring the text of Scripture to bear upon my life and upon the lives of others. A dictionary definition of exegesis looks something like this:
explanation, critical analysis, or interpretation of a word, literary passage, etc., esp. of the Bible
I strongly prefer Eugene Peterson’s definition from Eat This Book:
Exegesis is the furthest thing from pedantry; exegesis is an act of love. It loves the one who speaks the words enough to want to get the words right. It respects the words enough to use every means we have to get the words right. Exegesis is loving God enough to stop and listen carefully to what he says. It follows that we bring the leisure and attentiveness of lovers to this text, cherishing every comma and semicolon, relishing the oddness of this preposition, delighting in the surprising placement of this noun. Lovers don’t take a quick look, get a “message” or a “meaning,” and then run off and talk endlessly with their friends about how they feel.
I love the title Eat This Book. My children, unaware of the allusion to Ezekiel 3 and Revelation 10, look at me quizzically as I read it, with a look that says, “If you decide to do what the title says, I want to be there to watch.”
Apr
21
The worship leader in your pew
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Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.
What a privilege it is to lead public, gathered worship! From where I stand, I can see everyone’s faces as we sing or as I preach. Some are joyful and engaged; others bored and drowsy. Some sing heartily; others stand silently with hands in pockets. Some respond readily and tenderly to the Word; others strike an almost defiant pose. In one very important sense, every worshiper is a worship leader. I don’t mean that in the “every member is a minister” sense that obliterates all distinctions between ordained and non-ordained leadership in the church. At FPC Kosciusko the ministers, the elders, or those in training for such officiate in the worship services.
Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory.
What do I mean by “every worshiper is a worship leader”? I mean that together we are building a particular culture of worship in our congregation. Every worshiper contributes to it, either positively or negatively. Joyful, engaged worshipers influence others, demonstrating that the Triune God is worthy of our attention and affections. When people who love God because he first loved them come together to lift their hearts, minds, voices, wallets, etc. to the Lord, there is nothing like it in this world.
Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!
On the other hand, bored and drowsy worshipers influence others, demonstrating that there are plenty of other things in this world more worthy than Almighty God–namely, self, pleasure, and possessions. Fathers and grandfathers who show themselves utterly disengaged from the worship of God are sending such a message to their families and those sitting around them.
Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.
Of course I’m not pleading for phony, contrived emotions. I’m not saying that worship is to be done to impress others. I understand that sometimes you come into a worship service ill-tuned and poorly prepared: bad sleep the night before, those antihistamines you took so you wouldn’t sneeze through the service (imagine preaching with “medicine head”!), an argument with your wife that isn’t as resolved as you think it is, the frustration of searching for your daughter’s missing dress shoe that morning, rushing in so you’re not late, not much sense of the presence and peace of God in your life the week prior (and I haven’t the time to go into the matter of confession of sin and repentance in this blog post). All these factors militate against reverent, joyful worship. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Having said all that, I want to ask some important questions about worship:
- Does the Gospel of God’s free grace in Christ move you to respond to God? Why or why not?
- Does the work of Christ change you from the inside out? How?
- Do you believe he’s worthy of all the praise and glory you can give him? How is that expressed in your life?
- What conclusions about God and his ways can others draw from sitting next to you in worship on the Lord’s Day?
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!
Apr
15
April 15 and shrewd dealing
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A little reflection on taxation and the Biblical narrative for your April 15…
The book of Genesis ends and the book of Exodus begins with the descendants of Jacob living in Egypt in prosperity and favor as a highly respected colony of foreigners in Pharaoh’s land. Some time after the death of Joseph, we read of a turn in their collective fortunes:
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field.In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. [Exodus 1:8-13]
The narrative is typically sparse. I’ve always wondered how they were enslaved. Moses tells us only that the Jews were a prosperous and growing political minority, and that Egypt felt that national security demanded some shrewd policy changes. Would the people of Israel be loyal to Egypt when the chips were down? Would they leave, which apparently would disastrous for Egypt (perhaps economically)? These questions were faced by a new pharaoh, one who did not know Joseph–suggested by some scholars to be Sesostris III, who ruled over what is called the ‘feudal age’ of Egypt. (Other candidates include Amosis, founder of the 18th Dynasty, who ruled 300 years after Sesostris III.)
Under the legal codes of the time, which are believed to be very static and fixed, a person could be enslaved for being a criminal, a prisoner of war, or a delinquent debtor or taxpayer. If that is so, then it is quite likely that the new pharaoh could have assessed new taxes or tributes upon the Jewish population and set the rate so high that it could not be paid. Delinquency or rebellion against taxes would have given pharaoh justification to confiscate Jewish wealth and assets and to enslave them. It may very well have been through the “ways and means” of burdensome taxation that the new pharaoh dealt shrewdly with the children of Israel.
History shows us that many rulers and governments have followed this example–an unpopular wealthy class that is growing in number and influence, without political power, is taxed into oblivion, emigration, or rebellion. In the 20th century, Adolf Hitler imposed confiscatory and unjust taxes on Jewish communities in Germany as his initial steps in addressing “the Jewish problem.” Even in the modern nation-state of Israel the high Arab birthrate in the West Bank and Gaza strip is a key reason why some Israelis want to solve the problem of the occupied territories now, before Arabs outnumber Jews. [And no, I'm not equating Israeli and Nazi German policies--just pointing out contemporary manifestations of the concerns about growing "foreign" populations. Similarities could be traced in the U.S. over Hispanic immigration or in EU countries of the rapidly growing Muslim population.]
Where am I heading with all this? As you send off your tax returns today or check off the list in your mind that you really did send them off some time ago, think about the command of the Apostle Paul in Romans 13:7, that we should pay taxes to whom taxes are due. In addition, as citizens of a democratic republic, we ought to be alert and vigilant. Tax policies have always been about something more than raising revenues for governments to function. They can also be tools of injustice and oppression.
Apr
10
I don’t see how…
Filed Under Bible, Christian Living, Culture, Family, The Church | Leave a Comment
“I don’t see how a Christian could…
• Vote for a Democrat
• Practice birth control
• Send his children to public school
• Drink beer
• Play along with the Santa Claus myth
• Allow his wife to work for pay outside the home
• Watch TV on Sunday
• Vacation at a Disney theme park
• Use an epidural during childbirth
• Let someone else care for his child more than ___ hours a week
• Listen to secular music
• Take an antidepressant
• Bottle-feed a baby.”
Over the last twenty years I’ve been around fellow Christians who have voiced those exact opinions, and each time a compelling, confident biblical justification followed. I must admit that in the past I have held some of the above opinions with great confidence. In fourteen years as a minister I’ve also had to let go of some of those things and clean up the mess behind those who won’t.
These are the kinds of things the Apostle Paul calls “disputable matters” in Romans 14:1ff. In that setting the issues were voiced as “I don’t see how a Christian can eat meat” or “I don’t see how a Christian can ignore the Jewish calendar.” To this Paul says, Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind…Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another…And in v.19 he says, So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
Even if we have strong convictions about what we think is right, we are to respect the choices that other believers make in them, even if we are convinced on biblical grounds that they are wrong (Rom. 14:1-15:7). Further, we need to come to terms with the reality that we sometimes lack the “clear, biblical evidence” we like to claim. Each one should be convinced in his own mind, Paul teaches us; yet we also must accept one another in order to bring praise to God and not judge our brothers and sisters for whom Christ died.
Did you notice that about half of the items on the list above deal directly with issues regarding women and children? Sadly women are particularly (though not exclusively) prone to divide and despise and devour one another over disputable matters regarding childrearing, work, education and social involvement. My wise wife reminds me, “Women are sensitive creatures. Sensitivity is not a liability; rather, it is an asset for which we should be thankful. It makes us loving moms, daughters, sisters, and friends. Imagine the Church without the love and care of women. Then again, you probably wouldn’t want to do that. What would things be like in time of crisis and celebration if women were not around to carry the load?” The downside of this wonderful sensitivity is that women can live lives full of doubt and anxiety, victim to the opinions of others and threatened when other Christians disagree. Matters of childrearing, work, and social involvement particularly get under our skin.
It reminds me of an incident in Judges 12. In the midst of a civil war, the Gileadites hold the Jordan River, and whenever anyone comes to cross, they ask him to say the word “shibboleth”—a Hebrew word whose meaning is uncertain. The Ephraimites had a distinct dialect in which they can’t pronounce the “sh” in “shibboleth” and say “sibboleth” instead. “Thereupon [the Gileadites] would seize him and slay him.” More than 40,000 Ephraimites fall into this language trap and are killed. (Wouldn’t you think the Ephraimites would have figured this out at some point? They certainly weren’t the brightest of the tribes!)
At those times when modern-day Gileadites whip out their shibboleths, remember Paul’s questions in Romans 14:10: But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Should I judge the Disney vacationing, beer drinking, brother who wears an “Obama for President” t-shirt while listening to “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” on his iPod? Should I despise the brother or sister who has never stood beneath the shadow of Cinderella’s castle and who curses every yellow school bus? The answer to both questions is “no.”
Quarreling over opinions causes division within the church and ignores the immense sacrifice of Christ on the cross in favor of a self-made righteousness. Ladies and gentlemen, we must be very careful about such things, for none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s (Romans 14:5-8).
I don’t see how a Christian could disagree with that.
Apr
8
Tops of the mountains of our guilt
Filed Under Christian Living, Evangelism, Holiness, Justification | Leave a Comment
“Standing at the foot of the cross, and beholding the Redeemer in his expiring agony, the Christian may indeed gather courage. When I think of my sin, it seems impossible that any atonement should ever be adequate; but when I think of Christ’s death it seems impossible, that any sin should ever be great enough to need such an atonement as that. There is in the death of Christ enough and more than enough. There is not only a sea in which to drown our sins, but the very tops of the mountains of our guilt are covered. Forty cubits upwards hath this red sea prevailed. There is not only enough to put our sins to death, but enough to bury them and hide them out of sight. I say it boldly and without a figure, — the eternal arm of God now nerved with strength, now released from the bondage in which justice held it, is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Christ.”
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled “The Believer’s Challenge,” delivered June 5, 1859