Sterling House Advent Devotional

     Each Fifth Tuesday of the month (so not so often) I give a devotional at Sterling House Senior Living. Tomorrow is a fifth Tuesday and, though it is a long post, here is my Advent devotional:

     Often the emphases in popular Christian thought seem to crowd out the emphases that seemed to explain it all just a few years ago. Each explains scripture, tells us how to grow, and how to live. Some emphases come back around so don’t seem to. In the midst of all of this there are so many beautiful insights into the life of faith. It always gives me a little shudder of excitement when I pick up a book on living the Christian life from a different time and that book speaks directly to the questions that I have been asking this week.  This week I picked up a 48 year old book—eleven years older than I am—and had this experience. I remember many of the times between then and now and it was a different time but its themes could have been written this year.

     I have been impressed with the character of God in recent months. In particular, I have been impressed by the way that God lays down himself in love. Each person of the Trinity defers to the other. God, in Christ lays down his life for the other—for creation. This is the reality behind creation and redemption and we don’t really get it until we understand that this is the reality. We always wonder what laying ourselves down gains for us. In the character of God this deferring of self for the other seems to be basic. It is not a means to another end. It simply is. It is what God calls us to be for its own sake and do not simply as an exercise that achieves God’s higher purposes.

     Since we are at the beginning of Advent, I am reflecting on this idea and this chapter from Ivan Anson Beals’ 1963 book Communion With Christ (Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City) in light of the Christmas event. At the Cross Christ lays himself down for others but it is not only in the cross. The whole pattern of Christ’s life can be described as laying himself down for others…for God the Father, for God the Spirit, for the lost sheep of Israel, for his followers, for the lost sinner…

     Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 3:5-11 NKJV

Though God, Christ laid his honor aside for the lost. The Father deferred honor that he might have received and gave it to the Son. Jesus receives that honor in such a way that directs honor to the Father. And this is the way we should be—the mind that we should have.

     The birth of Jesus is one picture of this. Laying aside the honor of being God for the sake of others. To bring redemption to the lost. To bring glory to God. Because that is who Jesus is. That is what God does.

     Here are some passages from Communion with Christ.

     To sacrifice self and self-interest for the profit of others is to effectually shew forth the Lord’s death till He come. Only then do we exhibit the great principle which animated His death [His life, and even His birth]. Only then is the full purpose of communion with Christ realized. In this regard the word ‘sacramental’ must be understood to mean the real presence of Christ being conveyed unto others through the elements of speech and every facet of the whole life of the Christian.

     We are to confess with every part of us that Christ has come in the flesh—not only historically as an individual but that He has taken residence in our flesh. Therefore every activity of our lives should testify of Jesus Christ and our relationship to Him and He abides within the frame of our flesh.

     We cannot be sacramental disciples until we deliberately lay ourselves in the altar of the Cross. Here we are to give ourselves over decisively and completely to actually become what we are potentially in the sight of God—unified members of the body of Christ. Thus our devotional lives should lead us to identify ourselves with God’s interests, and His interests are in other lives also…He expects us to identify ourselves with His interest in others.

     When one lays himself on the altar of the Cross, all consciousness of self disappears, and all consciousness of what he is doing for God or of what God is doing through him disappears also. All excellence of self loses distinguishment in relation to the radiant brilliance of the excellency of Christ. There should be no place for any feeling of self-satisfaction on our part with regard to religious experience…Thus the only possibility of our expression of sacramental service is for us to endure a death to self…Therefore, ‘he must increase, but I must decrease’ (John 3:30)…We must put to death the things within us that are not of God…He does not just say, ‘Let him give up sin’; most men are more willing to give up sinning than self. But Jesus includes self: ‘Let him deny himself.’ [Rom 12]

     This kind of service is the high type of service in which Jesus gave himself on our behalf…We, in love, are to determinedly relate ourselves to Christ by communion with Him, so that we are moved only by the things that appeal to Him. Only then are we interested in doing things with which He is associated. Thus, unless we are willing to give up the right to ourselves, unless we are willing to give up what we consider to be the good and legitimate things in favor of Christ, we have not comprehended who He is, nor have we understood His salvation plan…If we cannot give up our best for Him, all our words concerning our love for Him are meaningless. For it is the essential nature of love even in the natural life to give its best.

     The sacrifice of ourselves to Jesus Christ is a crisis act, but its unfolding is a progressive experience. Many unknown interests may arise in our lives, and our sacrifice to Him is a continuous, living one. An up-to-date experience involves up-to-date sacrifice, our ready consent to continually give up our right to ourselves to Christ…His presence flowing through the common elements of our lives.

     Such a disposition is not part of our natural birth, bit it becomes a part of us as we obey the wooings of the Holy Spirit…Our fellowship [with Christ] is deepened only as we also partake of Him in Spirit, allowing the Holy Spirit to come and sanctify us wholly…Communion with Christ is more than a physical sacrament; it is a life of fellowship that crystallizes into service. As the ritual of Communion [and for that matter, His birth] is Christ’s physical testimony to us, so our lives are a physical witness of Him to an unbelieving world.

     A hungering and thirsting for the Lord should permeate all our thoughts of life. Then, like-mindedness with Christ shall dominate any desire for communion, and it will confirm every gesture of service. Apart from Christ we are nothing. Without his life we are dead.

     This all brings me to want to worship the Christ-child all the more this season. I want to confess that Christ has come in the flesh not only in speech and song but with all I am and do. I want to exalt the radiant brilliance of Christ. I want to bow at His manger even as he divests himself of glory for my sake. I want to take His purposes as my purposes. I want to hunger for His will, His heart, and His mission. I want to do this once and for all. I want to do it continually in the most mundane parts of my life and in the most painful and darkest places of the lives of those to whom Jesus is reaching. I want His presence to flow through the common elements of my days. As God is born in human likeness so that I might become more I want to become less that Christ might become more.

So, I am joyful as I look with feverous anticipation for the celebration of His coming. I am joyful as I look with expectancy and hope for His coming again. Come, Thou long expected Jesus!

unreachable people and a missional community

One of the books I come back to from time to time is The Celtic Way of Evangelism by George G. Hunter III. It is a book that resonates with postmoderns in its hands-on relationality and the implication of a space for feeling and for mystery. In contemporary Christian terms it describes a faith that is thoroughly missional.

Several points struck me in this week's reading. First, the Irish were considered to be unreachable people by many when Patrick set out on his mission. Obviously, there are cities and subcultures that people today have their doubts about if they do not explicitly consider them to be unreachable. For those who long to desire that all creation is redeemed Patrick's mission to the Irish is a encouraging narrative.
Second, Patrick's missionaries worked in a community and as a community. Their missional groups were not just made up of pastors but craftsmen, artists, teachers, scholars, farmers, and children. They welcomed others into their community life. Their community came in alongside an existing pagan community and they simply lived out "life in Christ" in front of and next to that community. They lived with anticipation of paradise..."The privileges of Adam and Eve in Eden, received from God but lost by the Fall, were reclaimed." (Hunter, 29)

"The visitor would first pass beyond a circular outer wall and through a gate that signified one was entering hallowed ground. The wall did not signify an enclosure to keep out the world; the area signified the 'alternative' way of life, free of aggression and violence and devoted to God's purposes that the community modeled for the world." (Hunter, 2)

Finally, they redeemed the cultures they invaded. They did not simply impose a different culture. And profoundly, "There is no shortcut to understanding the people...When the people know that the Christians understand them, they infer that maybe the High God understands them too." Here the Body of Christ realizes its potential to convey the concern, love, and redeeming activity of God.

the aim

Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord. Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts. They do not compromise with evil, and they walk only in his paths. You have charged us to keep your commandments carefully. Oh, that my actions would consistently reflect your decrees! Then I will not be ashamed when I compare my life with your commands. As I learn your righteous regulations, I will thank you by living as I should! I will obey your decrees. Please don’t give up on me! Psalm 119:1-8 NLT

The Psalmist is energized by God’s intended purposes, guidelines, and boundaries for life. He is sure that these will result in a full life—it is a joyful life. He speaks of living life according to God’s statutes as livable and yet he earns “Oh, that my actions would consistently reflect your decrees.” He does not regard a full life as unattainable and yet he recognizes his own distance from it. There is no question of his being arrogant about his own moral achievements but he does not dismiss God’s commands as unlivable. He sees them as the aim of a life well lived and the aim of a joyful life. He falls short but never abandons his aim in favor of a lesser one. He does not give up on God’s intent. He fully pursues the full life. He experiences shame but it does not derail him from this attitude and pursuit. He does not try to go it alone, to achieve it in order to be acceptable to God, but he cries out “please don’t give up on me!” “Never abandon me!” Life is right when we find ourselves in the place where we are desperately dependant on God, dizzy with excitement about the full life God offers us, and determined to live that life through the presence and provision of God.

postmodern

Postmodern can mean a lot of things and I am not going to try to give it a definitive definition (but that would be a good joke) nor am I going to meet everyone's expectations about someone who identifies with the term. I don't need to be a post-modern to think in most of these ways.


I find that one of the things that functioning in a postmodern context allows me to do is to value tensions. I can celebrate grace as thoroughly as Luther and tremble in the Presence of holy God. I can rely on grace alone and take seriously the biblical commands and personal responsibilities for life, faithfulness, and  holiness. I can experience God like Isaiah in his "woe is me, for I am ruined!" vision and like Paul who can describe "a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba! Father!'.” My experience of each of these poles heightens my experience of the other. Perhaps ironically, it is my faith in a meta-narrative of The Story of God that allows this perspective.


“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.”
 ⁴ And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. ⁵ Then I said,
   “Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” ⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. ⁷ He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.” Isaiah 6:3-7 NASB


...if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. Romans 8:13b-16 NASB

Devotions in Worship 2

In A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson, recounts his history with the word “backslider” and the fears that attended that history. He then notes that in Psalm 125 the emphasis is on the solidity of the life of faith rather than its precariousness. The Psalm tells us that “God encircles his people.” Peterson assures us that “we don’t always have to be looking over our shoulder lest evil overtake us unawares” (86); “Evil is always temporary” (89); “Defection requires a deliberate, sustained and determined act of rejection” (90). There are some very liberating and life-changing thoughts here. The implication is that apostasy is conscious and active.

Though I am hesitant to disagree with Peterson, I do in this case—at least in a part of what he says. I have taken my training from the Caroline Divines, from the Puritans, and from John Wesley to heart and I know the value of self-examination and a healthy fear of the deceitfulness of the human heart. Where I have to disagree with Peterson is over the implication that defection (apostasy) requires me to be conscious of it or active in it.

There are two principles at work in this aspect of the Christian life. (1) God will every time and always provide for my continued walking with him, for my power over sin, for my security in Christ. I can trust in God. And, (2) “the world” is constantly drawing me away. If I am not actively focusing on God my attention will be diverted. Where my attention goes so goes my heart where my heart goes so follow my actions. If I wander off after the things of the world I have defected from God whether or not I thought to send him a “dear John letter.” This defection is not instant—to be sure—but only in as much as cheating on my wife would not be an instant termination of our marriage. God is always faithful. If I am not faithful I rely on God’s faithfulness not on my own—to be sure. The answer is to always focus on God’s faithfulness. This will keep me from being distracted and from defecting. Self-examination is a good practice and keeping God in view is even better.

That is one of the things we do in worship. This is true for those who lead in worship personally. You must keep God in the center of your focus as you offer praise. It is also true of what you do for the church. You bring God to the attention of the congregation; you lead the congregation in looking to God. Blessed are you who never let us let God out of our sight.

Devotions in Worship 1

Standing in the Presence of the Holy One (1)

I was given A.W. Tozer's book Knowledge of the Holy by a building maintenance engineer who was a regular in our shop when I worked for Starbucks in downtown Kansas City. Over the next year, together with a handful of other devotional books, the introductory thoughts in this book challenged and changed my world--the way I percieved the world, the way I lived in it, and the things I valued in it. [Aside: I didn't know this man especially well but this layman ranks amongst the significant ministers in my life.] The following quotations spoke to me.

“With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet with God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. The words, ‘Be still, and know that I am God,’ mean next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling worshipper in this middle period of the twentieth century [and of today].”
“The low view of God [loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence] entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking.”
“The only way to recoup our spiritual losses is to go back to the cause of them and make such corrections as the truth warrants. The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them. It is impossible to keep our moral practice sound and our inward thoughts right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate. If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as he is.”

I think that most of what Tozer was saying 50 years ago that is valid for today. It is still very descriptive of many places where the Christian faith we see on a day-to-day basis does not reflect the character of the God described in the Bible. In worship we have to consciously revisit whether we are really aware of God’s holiness, of God’s character, and of God’s Presence.Some people clearly think that the reverence that this description of God requires is a “downer” in worship. The responses to this thought that have become evident in my own journey are (a) Who cares?—this who God is. Changing who God is so that we have a god we feel like worshipping is called idolatry. (b) When we acknowledge God’s holiness, God’s majesty, God’s infinitude it makes the fact that God pursues us in love absolutely astounding and “awe”-some. If “holy God, Creator of the Universe loves me,” then my life cannot be the same. If you say to me “God loves you” and describe God in the image of Oprah Winfrey then I might say “that’s nice” but it won’t change my life. Christians, Keep in mind that we worship a God whose concern for us changes our lives.

Practical Theology Oct-Dec

Here is an interesting thought. The best description of God that 2000 years of Christian thought has been able to form is that God exists in Trinity: one being and three persons. Some think that this is one of the most abstract doctrines of the Christian faith. But hold on—one thing that it means is that God is not primarily the divine individual but God is the divine community. God the Father has always loved God the Son perfectly. God the Spirit has always been the agent of divine love to others.

What does it mean to be a Christian? One thing it means is that we are adopted into the family of God. When things work as they should, children mature to resemble the good traits of their parents. A healthy Christian grows in the very character of God. God is the divine community. As we mature in the Christian life, we mature according to a certain model: God’s own character. We are given a new model for our relationships. Rooted in Jesus, we are invited to participate in the loving community of God.