The Story of Christ and a Particular Faith

As we have gone through a sermon series at our church called Five Tough Questions, we got to the question of whether or not it is arrogant to say that Jesus is the only way to God. Of course, the problem really arises when we see Jesus Himself proclaiming that He is “the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

We also looked at the extremity of the cross and asked the question, “If God would go to such an extreme as to humble Himself and become human, die a criminal’s death on the cross, have all of humanity’s sin poured onto Him and then judged that humans might be declared ‘not guilty’, ‘cleared of all charges’, then why would He turn around and give a menu of other options?” The cross is nonsense if it is one of a group of viable options!! Nevertheless, I have had more than a few lingering questions presented to me about the exclusive nature of Christ’s work and faith as it has developed from Judaism, from which Christianity springs. After all, as one diligent thinker wrote to me, if Abraham didn’t know who the second Person of the Trinity was and yet God declared Abraham righteous because of what he DID believe, isn’t that a case study to say, “God will save you based on what you know and believe…and it may not be a full-blown expression of faith in Christ”? Here was my response to that excellent question:

I am what one would call a “particularist”, which is a nice way of calling my position an “exclusivist” position. My position is that, to the extent that God has revealed His plan and promises, we must put our trust in them. So, for Abraham, he believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (a paradigm that both Paul and James seize upon!). It is faith! But, faith in what? God in general? No, it would be in His promises! Consider what God has just said to Abraham (who already knows that through his seed all the families of the earth will be blessed - Gen. 12:3). “It will be particularly through your own seed that redemption will come. You will not need to adopt Eliezer as an heir. This ‘seed’ will come through you and will become as numerous as the stars in the sky.” And now our verse - “Then he [Abraham] believed in YHWH; and He [YHWH] credited it to him [Abraham] as righteousness.” But, what does “believe in YHWH” mean? Is it not believing in Him as He has presented particulars of the promises that He will keep?

Now, as the OT history unfolds, there are expansions to the promises. He will come from the line of David. So now your object of faith is more developed than it was in Abraham’s time. It is more particular. By the time we arrive at Jesus, it is full-blown developed. In fact, the Pharisees who still cling to Abraham’s promises to the exclusion of the now more-particular promises of God through Jesus stand as condemned (John 8:31-59). What was adequate for saving faith in Abraham’s day (since he certainly would not have known who the second Person of the Trinity was) is no longer adequate because of the expansions.

This, I believe, is why we see Cornelius’ faith in Acts chapter 10 (as Keith Melugin so faithfully pointed out to me even this morning) being rewarded with the whole enchilada, so to speak. He has faith, but because the kind of faith that saves is now a faith in the particulars of what God has currently revealed - Jesus, crucified, dead, buried, risen again, with salvation in His hands for all who would believe - God is faithful to His own character to get an angel to prepare Cornelius; to alert Peter to go to Cornelius (through a preparatory vision and then the voice of the Spirit) and finally, to lay it all out for Cornelius and his household.

It is also why I believe Paul could write so pointedly in Romans 10:9-15 that…

9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.   11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” 12 Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him.  13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”

14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

Isn’t Paul unavoidably direct with what does (doesn’t) save? I believe that the Bible will not allow us to escape the fact that all is now under Christ and a realization that one is guilty or that God exists is not enough. Christ is the hub that brings God’s glorious plan/story to its conclusion/its climax! The cross is the axis mundi that all of the other religions were merely hinting at. Anything short of this is to tell an incomplete story, to give only partial advice to a critical (all-critical) question. The point of the cross is to exalt God through Christ by displaying the fullness of His grace and love and justice and to make Him the center of our worship (Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:15-20). And this is where I must trust in the character and omnipotence of God to get the message to those whom I (nor anyone else) can reach, even as I reach out to people to whom I can get the message.

A Tale of Two Robertsons

I don’t normally call people out in public forums since I don’t believe we know all that has happened in any given particular situation where someone has acted badly (nor do I want to be plucking out splinters from eyes when I have “plank” issues of my own). And I usually don’t seek people like atheist Christopher Hitchens to give me inspiration on what to do or say. He is an “angry elf” who hates religion (particularly Christianity) with a breathtaking vehemence and thinks people like me are the worst kind of blithering idiot.

Nevertheless, Hitchens made a convicting statement in his book God Is Not Great that has been hard to shake for me. He noted how Christians have too often stood on the sidelines when they should have denounced something…especially if it comes from within their ranks. Well, I have stood silent for too long after Pat Robertson gave televised advice to a viewer who asked about a friend whose wife has Alzheimer’s disease. He is bitter at God for allowing this condition and is seeing another woman and believes he should be allowed to divorce his wife. Robertson’s advice? Here is what he said, “I hate Alzheimer’s… That person is gone, they are gone. What he says is basically correct. I know this sounds cruel, but he should divorce her and start all over again. But, he should make sure she has custodial care and someone looking after her.” Robertson’s co-host started to prod, “But, isn’t that what we vow…for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health?” Robertson responded, “Yeah, if you respect that vow…But this is a kind of death.” If you respect that vow?! Here is a link if you want to see it with your own two eyes.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pat+robertson%2c+alzheimers&mid=1BA2B2BC99A1DF3E93E21BA2B2BC99A1DF3E93E2&view=detail&FORM=VIRE5

Compare that with the statements of another “Robertson”, Robertson McQuilkin, who was the president of Columbia International University until the time when his wife of 40 years, Muriel, regressed so badly with Alzheimer’s that he chose to resign his post. The board had arranged for a companion to stay in the home so he could go daily to the office. But, during those two years, it became increasingly difficult to keep Muriel home. As soon as he left, she would take out after him. The walk to school was a mile round trip. She would make that trip as many as ten times a day. Sometimes at night, when he helped her undress, he found bloody feet. When he told his family doctor, the doctor choked up. "Such love," he said simply.

Here is a close paraphrase of what McQuilkin said in his resignation address,

“Lately Muriel cannot speak in sentences, only in phrases and words, and often words that made little sense: ‘no’ when she means ‘yes,’ for example. But she can say one sentence, and she says it often: I love you."


“I have had many difficult decisions to make over the years, but this one is simple and clear. Muriel is almost always happy when with me and almost never happy when not with me. She becomes fearful…sometimes almost terror. And when she cannot get to me, there is anger and distress. So I must be with her at all times. You see, it is not just that I promised ‘in sickness and in health, til death do us part’ (and I am a man of my word). But, as I have said, ‘She sacrificed for me for the last 40 years. So, if I cared for her the next 40 years, I would still be in debt.’ But, it is much more than that. It is not that I have to, it’s that I get to. I love her very dearly. She is such a delight. It is such an honor to care for such a wonderful person. One blessing is the way she is teaching me so much - about love, for example - God's love”.

Here is some of the recorded speech from Robertson McQuilkin’s resignation so you can hear with your own ears and compare the voice of a faithful servant to one who is not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6pX1phIqug

And so, given what Christ calls us to - the call to pastors and teachers to identify false teachers when you see them (Acts 20:28-32); the fact that the Christian community said almost nothing when Pat Robertson’s ties to Liberia and dictator Charles Taylor (so he could mine for gold) were surfaced; and in the clearest of comparison and contrast to “a man of his word”, another “Robertson”, Robertson McQuilkin, giving us clarity in the confusion - whether it is in my rights to do so or not, I publicly renounce Pat Robertson as a faithful teacher of the Christian faith. Shame on you, Pat Robertson!

Revamping Our Imagination

Last night, I had an unusual conversation with my middle child - Micah. Desiree and I got back from an evening out together, paid the babysitter and then headed upstairs to pray with the kids who were already in bed. Josiah was pretty much out. Jordan pretended to be asleep, but as soon as I bent over her to pray, she jumped up and gave me a kiss goodnight and told me she loved me (she is so sweet like that!). When I slipped into Micah’s room, it was completely dark except for the small bit of light from the hallway nightlight. And that’s when my unusual conversation with Micah began. “Go away”, he announced. Now, the reason that is unusual (aside from the obvious offense that most parents would take from their kids telling them to “go away”) is that Micah says almost nothing. Many of you are either familiar with my blog or familiar with my family, know that Micah is profoundly autistic. His sentences are typically limited to, “I would like ___, please.” So that he would tell me to “go away” told me- a) “Hey, he’s talking more!” and b) “He’s doing something he doesn’t want me to catch him doing.” I found that he was doing a puzzle instead of going to sleep in his bed. So Micah was escorted to his bed where he made another statement unprompted by me. “OK, night, night. NIGHT NIGHT!!” which seemed to be his way of saying, “OK, get out my room so I can go back to my puzzle.”

That night, I had this weird dream. I was sitting on Micah’s bed with him and Keith Melugin, our High School Pastor at the church where I serve. And Micah was sharing with Keith all about his day. Keith would ask a simple question and Micah would just go on and on about what he experienced and what he was thinking and so on. I woke up this morning, pondered the dream for a moment and then jumped into my daily routine- took my shower, brushed my teeth, got dressed, kissed Des goodbye, headed to work, answered my voice and e-mail messages and headed to our staff meeting.

We now have two staff meetings per week instead of one. The Wednesday staff meeting is going through the business of the church. The Tuesday meeting (this morning’s meeting) is about developing community and spiritual formation on the pastoral team. And the starting point for our discussion was Ephesians 1:15-23 where Paul spring boards from this amazing doxology of the magnificence and grandeur of God’s redemption plan, to this prayer for the church. And what does Paul pray for the church? To have more money to do missions? To have more workers to do more evangelism? To create more Bible studies? Those are all good things, make no mistake!! But, Paul prays that God would give us wisdom and revelation “so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance among the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power for us who believe.” In short, of all of the things Paul could pray for the Church, he prays that God would renovate and expand their imaginations!! Having just told us in 1:3-14 of all of the amazing things God has done and is doing; how His all-encompassing plan is to draw all things stained by the curse together as one again, under the sovereign rule of Christ; how He plans to renovate heaven and earth and redeem it all…Paul feels the strong need to pray that our imaginations can catch a glimpse of the way things will be. It’s apparently crucial to our ability to participate with this kingdom overhaul to have our sense of wonder and vision overhauled first!!

This past Saturday, a couple of our elders and pastors joined the pastor at Bethel AME church in Chagrin Falls Park for a prayer walk. And as I walked down the street praying and looking around at the despair and poverty that afflicted this community, it was everything I had in me to try and imagine a place under the rule of Jesus. I need to have my imagination redeemed and expanded!! And I know how I do it for other things, like my physical senses. I often go to the parks and sit in the beauty of nature. I need places like that in solitude since my physical senses have been dulled. Having boxed for a couple of years and sustained four broken noses, my senses of smell and taste have been dulled. I am also colorblind, so my ability to see the vibrancy and subtleties of color are muted. I look for places where I can overcome having those senses dulled and have them reinvigorated again; places where I can see and smell and feel things more boldly and more powerfully.

That’s Paul’s prayer for us and that’s why we need to pray. There are only so many things we can do to expand our spiritual imaginations. But, ultimately, it is a gift from God that we ask for and pray for and have others pray for us!! Last night, I didn’t just have a weird dream about my Micah talking as though his little mind had been completely healed. I was given a gift from God, a way of seeing what I cannot see because my spiritual senses are dull and need revamping. I was given insight into what God wants for me, wants for His church, wants us to know from Ephesians 1:15-23 and how it can change the way we live life, do ministry and embrace the “spiritual blessings” that God has endowed upon us in this world to come that is here in part; a world we can scarcely imagine!

Practice Makes Permanent

Several Sundays back, Desiree, two of our kids (Josiah and Jordan) and I attended the end of the year banquet for the Kenston Intermediate School wrestling team. Des and I pretty much convinced, bribed and coerced Josiah to go out for wrestling this year. He had learned Brazilian Ju-Jitsu in his karate class a couple years ago and had really excelled at it, so this made a lot of sense to us. And we were not disappointed!! Josiah went 29-3 in his first year, won third place, second place and then first place in the tournaments he competed in.

So it was a thrill to sit there at the banquet and hear the coach describe the award for “Best 1st Year JV Wrestler of the Year” and then call Josiah forward. Typical of our amazingly shy 11 year old, he went up, eyes fixed on the floor, took his trophy and made a bee-line back to his seat, until the coaches grabbed him and made him shake their hands.

As Des and I sat there beaming at our son, we could hear some of the other special awards being described and given out. But, one of them caught my attention. This particular award had been created by one of the coaches named Jack Carson. Jack was the inspirational, blood-and-guts assistant coach whose funny quips during workouts kept the parents in stitches and the kids pushing forward when they were getting tired (“Alright, ugly wrestlers down on the mat!! Now, UGLIER wrestlers down on the mat!!”). Coach Carson’s award was called “Practice makes Permanent”. I thought maybe Coach Carson had made a malapropism, meaning to say, “Practice makes Perfect”, but no - he was quite clear.

“Practice makes permanent, guys”, he said in his tough, almost Chicago-like accent. “What that means is simply this: you practice, you practice, you practice…and whatever it is you practice becomes permanent. If you practice a move sloppily…you will make it permanent. If you practice a technique sloppily, you will make it permanent. If you practice your techniques correctly, that too will become permanent. It isn’t ‘practice makes perfect’, because you could be practicing it all wrong. You want to practice perfection in order to make perfection permanent.”

How true…not only on the wrestling mat, but in life itself. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, we are being transformed bit-by-bit into something completely different, either into something utterly beautiful…or something utterly horrible. Spiritual formation is simply the forming of the soul. And that formation depends on the habits we form that will shape us each and every day. We either intentionally form habits of engaging others in a loving and understanding way, or we form habits of judgment and scorn. We either train ourselves to rigorously engage God’s Word and allow it to reshape the way we think and what we value and how we live, or we fall into our default modes and wing it. We either practice solitude and silence to be with God and to listen or we pray primarily when we are real trouble and need a life raft…only to return to our basic indifference towards God once the crisis has passed. Each time we do something, we practice something. And practice makes permanent. As Oscar Wilde once remarked - by the age of 40, everyone has the face they deserve.

Here’s one of the saddest things I have observed in my 24 years as a professing Christian: too many Christians practice a sloppy faith. Too many Christians don’t take the time to consider what it means to be a Christian and to live out their faith. Or they think that they have to be perfect right out of the chute and forget that salvation is the starting point, not the end game. From salvation comes a life dedicated to Christ that is formed bit-by-bit as we practice the life we’re called to. In 2 Peter 1:3-8, we hear God’s Word encourage us just so!!

3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. 5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. 8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Practice makes permanent!! Coach Carson, you couldn’t have been more true!!

What Is Real Power?

I have to admit something- I love watching Mixed Martial Arts. Even as I am writing this blog, I have Bully Beatdown in the background just to get my fix until next weekend’s pay-per-view event. (For those who have never seen Bully Beatdown, it is a reality show in which they coax a neighborhood bully into getting into the cage with a professional MMA fighter…who then exacts a little lex talionis “eye for an eye”.) As a pastor, I guess I shouldn’t indulge in such a brutal sport, but the strategies are amazingly complex and fascinating, the action is fast-paced and the skill-level of these athletes is so impressive. No wonder it is the fastest growing sport on the planet! Ultimately though, the matches are a display of power.

Of course, MMA is not our only fascination with power. We seemed to be consumed with power in all kinds of arenas. The political realm is always a struggle for power. I watched the various cable news networks with equal fascination as the 2010 mid-term elections came to a close. Did President Obama and the Congress abuse their power in the eyes of the American people from 2008 until the mid-terms? Did the Tea Party garner new power in the political realm? Do the “establishment” Republicans resent the Tea Party’s new influence and feel that their power is being compromised? One of the more influential books on leadership (Leadership on the Line by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky) discusses a key component to good leadership in the chapter entitled, “Think Politically” which is primarily about building networks and expanding your power-base in order to get changes moved forward. One positive example that is offered is the work of Robert Moses, who basically redesigned New York City in the 1930s. With a power base of mayors, governors and a state legislature who gave him eminent domain authority, Moses was able, through long struggles, to change the face of New York City. Of course, in this power move, Moses disrupted whole communities, displaced thousands of people, seized homes, businesses, neighborhoods. While it is a testament to Moses’ shrewd use of connections and networking, the use of power was really an abuse of power…which seems to always, inevitably occur. The now famous comment by Lord Acton is still just as true today as it was when it was first uttered- “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

In light of this constant, it is startling how the Bible turns the ideas of power on their head. Consider for a moment, after the amazing demonstration of power by God at creation, how He moves forward and how He exhibits further demonstrations of His omnipotence.

1) He chooses a wandering, moon-worshipping (Josh. 24:2) nomad named Abram and his wife Sarai to become the conduit of all blessing to a cursed earth.

2) He identifies Himself to Abram/Abraham as El Shaddai, which probably means “God who is sufficient”, which is most suitable at this point in the Genesis story, since Abraham and Sarah are holding on by a string.

3) Consider the names of the two mid-wives at the beginning of Exodus. That we would even know the names of these two socially insignificant people because of their heroic act of protecting the Hebrew baby boys is baffling (for the record, their names are Shiphrah and Puah). But when we consider that we are never told the Pharaoh’s name (you know, the most powerful political leader in the world at that time), we get another glimpse of who is important, significant, powerful in God’s economy.

4) And what about Ruth? Sandwiched in between the books of Judges and Samuel (at least in the Christian Bible), between the shift from regional tribal leaders to one overlord, a king, is this story about a Moabite widow and how she falls in love with a Hebrew man named Boaz. Nice sentimental story, but…come on!! Who cares? We’ve got political tectonic plates moving around. Why tell us about this seemingly insignificant story? And yet, Ruth’s intense loyalty to Naomi and her newfound dedication to YHWH results in the birth of Israel’s first great king, David!

5) And how does the story of Samuel begin? It doesn’t start in the courtyard of rulers- the powerbrokers of that day hashing out plans and strategies. It starts with some poor woman named Hannah who is infertile and has to live with a witch of a second wife. So she prays to God for a child who she will then return to Him for a lifetime of service…and boom, she gets pregnant. Somewhere along the storyline of judges and prophets and battles, God decides to show us a sliver of beauty as Hannah knits a little robe for her son who now lives with Eli the high priest (1 Sam. 2:19). And yet, Samuel will grow up to be a king-maker!!

6) God picks a mere boy to replace the tall and handsome Saul to be His new king because God looks at character, not talent or charisma (1 Samuel 16:7)!

7) God describes His “servant” as nothing special physically. In fact, this servant has no stately majesty or good looks to draw others to follow Him. In fact, His grisly death leaves everyone assuming that He was accursed by God and not God’s greatest demonstration of mercy (Isa. 52:13-53:12).

8) True to form, the Messiah comes from the home of a blue collar worker- a carpenter named Joseph and a woman named Mary, who many probably accused of infidelity prior to her formal marriage (the Spirit of God made her pregnant? Yeah right!)

9) The symbol of this new amazing work of God, this culmination of the stories in the Hebrew Bible that point to God’s overhaul of the created order, the pinnacle of redemption…is a cross. Today, we might use an electric chair, because the cross was a symbol of capital punishment reserved for the worst criminals. Even the Apostle Paul admits that, at least on the surface, this is pure idiocy- “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 Cor, 1:18)

The power of God…hmmm. How weird are these ideas of power? Everything about power in God’s economy runs completely counter to everything we know or are taught. What’s my point? My point is simply this- part of walking in faith is living a life that seems to be so vulnerable, so dangerous that we have an almost allergic reaction to them.

• “Forgive your enemies and love them? I don’t think so!!”
• “Submit yourselves to every authority? Have you seen what they will do with their authority?”
• “It is better to suffer for doing right and thus give your own defense of the work of Christ than to defend yourself? Easy for you to say!!”

But, here is exactly where the life of faith in Christ works, because it is not typically through the strong that God exhibits His strength. Indeed, the strong may often obscure the power of God and we may be easily tempted to attribute the success to human talent, charisma and/or influence. Why else would God choose to come as such an insignificant figure as Jesus, a carpenter from the no man’s land of Nazareth (even one of His disciples had a problem with his origin of birth, see John 1:46) to embody all His glory? Why would God choose a bunch of uneducated fishermen (and if we think about how long the Apostle John lived, we would have to conclude that they were probably in their late teens or early twenties when Jesus chose them!) to be the vehicles for His world-changing agenda? Why would Paul, a self-admittedly unimpressive man say- “…power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me” (2 Cor. 12:9).

I love this because I see what I could not have ordinarily seen when looking at my own life. And what I see is the activity and the movement of God!! We all say how we wish we could see God, but He can be seen if you know where to look. And where to look, in many instances, is at the places of weakness and vulnerability where it could only have been God. I know my story well. I was never popular, sometimes I got good grades, but most of the time I was rather unmotivated. I was one of the smallest kids in my class until I got to my junior year in high school, and even then I would never be confused with a giant. I walk with an obvious limp due to a bone disease I contracted as an infant (so sports were out the window after 5th grade). My boxing career (I never tried MMA) was a very average one. As an amateur, I had 2 wins, 2 losses and 4 knockouts (you do the math). I have a high, raspy, unpleasant voice that routinely causes phone callers to ask me if they can speak to the “man of the house”. In short, I have all the traits of a “nobody”. I don’t say this to be falsely humble or self-deprecating. I actually like who I am. This is simply a realistic assessment. Like Paul, I too am not a particularly impressive person (few are, of course). The only explanation that I can give for the position I have now, in which I preach every Sunday to approximately 1100 people, is God delights in showing off His strength in the midst of weakness. It fits the pattern of redemptive history to a tee. So, embrace your inner-nobody!! Embrace the walk of a Christ-follower…and watch for God’s movements in your life!