pastoral theology – Page 39

Subterranean terror

GlenJuly 20, 2009Leave a comment

Homer's Scream

The first human emotion after the fall was fear - Gen 3:10

The first human emotion after birth is fear.

The most common biblical command is 'Fear not'.

Which gives you the idea that fear is a major part of our emotional life as fallen creatures. But of course, we hide it under a thousand pseudonyms. Here are a few phrases we say all the time. In italics is what we really mean.

I'm not mechanical/sporty/mathematical

I am insanely threatened by this challenge to my competence

I'm not really a people person

The thought of others getting close terrifies me

I'm not much of an admin person

Facing up to daily responsibilities fills me with dread

I'm not that tactile

I'm terrified of human touch

I don't like people making a fuss over me

It feels intolerably dangerous to have attention

I'm more of an ordered person

I must protect myself from the chaos

I'm just shy, that's all

One wrong step in public and the embarassment could kill me

I don't go for flashy clothes

I'm petrified of having the eyes of others on me

I like to look good

I'm afraid of being invisible

I'm quite competitive

I can't bear to be a loser

I don't like all that competitive stuff

I can't bear being appraised

I like to chew over my decisions

I'm petrified of doing it wrong

I tend to decide on the spot

I'm petrified good things will be taken away

I'm just a practical person

I fear mystery

I'm not really a practical person

I'm terrified of being shown up in the 'real world'

I'm gay - it's just the way I am

I'm terrified of entering a woman (on many levels)

I'm lesbian - it's just the way I am

I'm terrified of being entered by a man (on many levels)

Corrections and/or additions welcome

Not receiving it – receiving Him

GlenJuly 14, 2009Leave a comment

Enquirers into Christianity often have difficulty with the concept of appropriating grace. And given how we often present it, that's understandable. Often we tell the enquirer simply to receive grace as a free gift. They, naturally, wonder what on earth that looks like. So we reply with greater vigour 'Just receive the free forgiveness and trust that you have been forgiven.' When that draws a blank we revert to a series of cliches, each more abstract than the last - "The door has been opened, walk through the door... You've got the cheque marked 'forgiveness' - cash the cheque."

But this is not the way the Bible presents it. In John 3:16 - the gift we are to receive is Jesus. Grace is not basically a concept or property. He is a Person. Doesn't this (literally) put flesh and bones on the concept of receiving grace as a free gift. We're really asking the non-Christian to receive Jesus - the gift of His Father.

Rev 3:20 - There's not a 'free gift' standing at the door, waiting to be unwrapped. There's not a gift certificate to be opened saying "IOU 1 eternal life". There is Jesus standing at the door. And when you let Him in He doesn't just hover in your lobby assuring you of your forgiven status, He eats with you in intimate fellowship. THAT is what saving faith looks like. That is how a person becomes a Christian - not by assenting to a concept of forgiveness or vicarious atonement but by receiving the Person in Whom forgiveness, atonement and life is offered.

The same point is made in Colossians 1:13, 14. It is the Son in Whom redemption is offered - which is the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness is redemption - the transference of a person (who is still a sinner!) from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Christ. This deliverance is offered IN Jesus. We must be introducing people to the person of Jesus not the concept of change (or even of redemption or deliverance). We don't believe in redemption per se - we believe in the Redeemer.

Three implications:

First, in the Lord's Supper we ought to find some way of taking 'This is my body' seriously. Transubstantiation is not the answer but neither is memorialism - we don't simply receive tokens of good stuff. We receive Christ in the supper. He Himself is the Bread of life who nourishes, not remembrances of grace.

Second, in personal chats let's talk about Jesus. Not just our spirits, not just our blessings or struggles but Jesus. How it fortifies the heart to hear His name on another's lips! He is received by us again and again as we hold out His word to one another.

Third, in preaching, we can be bold to offer a free salvation to sinners because we're not offering a blank cheque but marriage to a Bridegroom. This will help us with the issue we thought about in my last post - I reckon we ought to hold out salvation to people who are hardened sinners, people who still love darkness and who don't actually have a resolve to 'Go God's way'. Because, of course, without Christ how could they?? But then people object and say, 'This will promote licence. You can't offer forgiveness to people who don't show signs of repentance.' Here's the thing though - we're not holding out a 'Get out of Jail Free' card. We're holding out Christ Himself to sinners. If we simply preached an abstract 'forgiveness' then licence is a distinct possibility. If we preach Christ it's out of the question.

Dan Allender – The Psychology of a Pooped Pastor

GlenJuly 13, 2009Leave a comment

The Wounded Heart is my favourite Dan Allender resource. (see previous post). But here's one that's $95 cheaper (i.e. free). A talk entitled The Psychology of a Pooped Pastor

His main point is that the problem is not Pooped Pastors but Pissed Pastors. (By the way Mum, by pissed he means angry - it's an American thing).

It's not underlying tiredness but underlying anger that's the problem. Very interesting!

Some manly things Jesus did

GlenJuly 4, 2009Leave a comment

jesus gun

Three pictures of manliness in the gospels:

ONE. Jesus, pictured as the father in Luke 15, (seriously the father is Jesus. Just straightforwardly and obviously Jesus. It's demonstrable beyond any question of refutation. Really). Where was I? Oh yes, Jesus, pictured as the father, is turned in his stomach with compassion, hitches up his robes, runs to his good-for-nothing son, flings his arms around him and kisses him.

Here is the most poignant picture of Jesus' love for sinners. And Jesus chooses a patriarch to show it. We might think he looks pretty motherly and not fatherly. We might question the masculinity of this scene. We'd be dead wrong. Here is a picture of total Jesus-shaped manliness.

TWO. Jesus gets up from the evening meal, downs his drink in one, belches and tells a cracking gag about women drivers. No wait. That's not John 13. In John 13 He gets up from the table, takes off His robe, picks up a towel, and He gets down on His hands and knees to wash and pad dry the dirty, naked feet of His friends.

Was this a detour from His otherwise robust masculinity? No, it was the expression of it. Here was Jesus showing the full extent of His love (v1) - the Bridegroom washing His bride in sacrificial service.

THREE. Gethsemane: Jesus, overwhelmed with sorrow, actually lets His friends in on His distress - inviting Peter, James and John to watch with Him. The Passion of the Christ gets this wrong - Jesus does not say 'I don't want them to see me like this.' The only reason we know about this episode is that Jesus must have told them all about it. Desperate praying, sweating blood, heart poured out, never has Jesus looked weaker.

I've heard Driscoll repeatedly describe Gethsemane as a portrait of femininity - Jesus in submission to His Head, the Father. Of course both men and women need to look to Christ as Model. But frankly I think Driscoll is avoiding something that ought to challenge his macho-man masculinity. Here is Man in submission to God. This is what man is made for. The Ruler under God, in the garden, obeying submissively in total dependence and willing to die for His bride - here is the Last Adam, the true picture of manliness.

Of course it doesn't look very macho. It isn't. But it's what Jesus-shaped masculinity looks like.

To be a man like the Man doesn't look manly to men. A man must be man enough to reject men and follow the Man.

How are you?

GlenJune 30, 2009Leave a comment

How do you answer that question? You're going through the mill all week, sipping a cuppa after the service, and someone asks cheerily 'How are you?' What do you say?

We've had experience of chronic illness for many years now. I confess that when people ask about it we don't really know what to say. I know other friends who have degenerative illnesses. And every week the questions come at church 'How are you? Any progress?' And they answer 'Yes indeed - the illness has progressed... and barring divine intervention it will continue to progress.' The person frowns and asks 'So the doctors haven't helped?' And of course the doctors have helped... as much as they can. But...

- ...'Oh, because I read in 'Chintz!' magazine about a woman who recovered after eating a diet of Goji berries and Quinoa - perhaps you could try that.'

- 'Maybe!'

- 'Give that a go and let me know next week.'

- 'Look forward to it!'

Don't get me wrong, I know the trouble from the other end. In our home group we have a woman who's struggled with insomnia for 50 years. Fifty years! But when she reveals this, what is our response?

"Have you tried a hot bath with a drop of lavender?"

"Long walks in the sea air."

"Listen to the shipping forecast"

"A drop of badger blood on the pillow..."

She shows extraordinary patience, listening to our home spun wisdom for a good quarter of an hour. Eventually she says, "I have struggled with this for 50 years you know".

Hmmm.

Our trouble is we don't know what we can offer unless it's a quick fix. So when we run out of fixes all we can think to do is offer prayer. Which is good I suppose. But even then - what's our goal? The fix! And how are we treating the other person? What are our interactions all about? Solving problems?

Here are some questions for us:

Can we handle sickness that doesn't yield to the quick fix?

Can we face the struggles that aren't solved by the tried and trusted common sense we take pride in?

Can we enter into the struggles of others and not make 'the fix' into the goal?

Can we simply journey with others in their mess and allow the Spirit to encourage us both in the Christ who is known best in the storm?

And, on the other end of things, when people ask us about our long-term stuggles, what can we say?

I've recently taken to one particular line that I picked up in a Tim Keller sermon, I'd love to hear any you have. His was this:

- How are you?

- Nothing a resurrection won't fix!

Gonna mess you up

GlenJune 30, 2009Leave a comment

There are two things that will really mess you up in life. Getting married and becoming a Christian. You can poodle along quite contentedly before either of these states. But once you enter marriage, or once Christ enters you - life as you know it is over.

I know a good number of people who have developed and/or exacerbated serious emotional and psychological problems upon entering one or both of these states.

How come? Well here's one thought. In both you have the unconditional presence of another. Not even your sins can keep people at bay now. In fact now sins just become the occasion for a much deeper engagement. Conditionality used to keep your sins underground and your critics distant. When things were conditional you knew that the presence of love in your life was directly related to your ability to keep unloveliness hidden. Now you have unconditional - and therefore inescapable - presence.

Ironically it's not law that shines a torchlight into our basements. It's grace. There's no hiding place from unconditional love.

Barth used to say 'God's grace shatters men.' George Hunsinger wrote a book on Barth's theology called 'Disruptive Grace.' That's the true nature of covenant relationships. Yes they are the context in which true growth and godliness occur. But only because first of all they totally mess you up.

What do we expect in Christian discipleship? What do we expect in marriage? I say prepare for massive disturbance - and I mean disturbance in the fullest sense of the word.

The fruit of the Spirit as works of the flesh

GlenJune 27, 2009Leave a comment

For years I prayed for the fruit of the Spirit every day. (Galatians 5:22f) Yet, looking back, I prayed for the fruit in an altogether fleshly way.

How so? Well basically my prayers were petitions for the moral character of ‘love, joy, peace...' as abstract qualities. I would judge my own spiritual walk that week by how loving, joyful, peaceful... I had been. In short I had turned the fruit of the Spirit into a check-list of works which I either did or didn't practice that week.

One morning, as I was praying for the fruit, I got an image of the Spirit coming to my door with a huge basket laden with choice fruits. And my response was to say ‘Thanks for bringing the fruit. Just leave them inside the door and I'll see you later!'

I wanted the fruit not the Spirit. I wanted the fruit apart from the Spirit. Yet the fruit is fruit of the Spirit. It grows organically from a relationship with Him. Henceforward I prayed for the Spirit Himself.

How quickly we turn gospel into law.
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1 Corinthians 13 sermon 17

GlenJune 25, 200917 Comments

bubblebath

Sermon Audio Click Here

How do you think of 1 Corinthians 13? Is it a warm, relaxing bubble bath? Does it make you forget your cares and give you the warm fuzzies?

antiseptic

I'm here to tell you, this chapter is not a bubble bath. It’s a scalding hot bath full of antiseptic!

And we are covered in cuts and bruises and deep wounds. And 1 Corinthians 13 hurts. It hurts!

That’s the kind of wake-up call Paul wanted the Cornithians to have. No Corinthian read this chapter and thought, ‘How sweet!. They thought ‘Yikes! I am in deep, deep trouble here.’

There are three paragraphs in this chapter. Paragraph 1 will put the fear of God into us, paragraph 2 will make us despair of ourselves, but only then will paragraph 3 give us some hope.

There’s hope in the end, but Paul wants us to soak long and hard in some painful truths.

Listen here. Or keep reading...

...continue reading "1 Corinthians 13 sermon"

I wish I never sinned

GlenJune 20, 2009Leave a comment

"I wish I never sinned" said the Israelite at the head of the queue.

The others waiting to make their sacrifices nodded.

The priest narrowed his gaze. "Why do you wish you never sinned?"

The Israelite was amazed that the priest would ask. The answer was so obvious it hardly needed saying. "So I don't have to keep returning to this altar."

A theology of preaching – part 4

GlenJune 18, 2009Leave a comment

Go to theology network for the full paper on preaching. I'll post it here in chunks. Be great to talk about it if you want to comment.

We've made the claim that preaching is God's word when Christ is proclaimed biblically. Now we will tease out some implications of this central conviction:

Christ must be proclaimed biblically.

We proclaim Him (Colossians 1:28). The point of the sermon is not to inspire certain feelings, to convey certain doctrines, to enjoin certain ethics, to dissect certain passages. The point of the proclaimed word is precisely the point of the written word – to witness the eternal Word (See John 5:36-47). We don’t preach Luke or Ecclesiastes. We preach Christ from Luke or Ecclesiastes.

Perhaps the Lord’s Supper provides a helpful analogy (it too is proclamation – 1 Cor 11:26). Just as the point of communion is the receiving of Christ by faith, so the point of the sermon is the same. He is as vital for sinners as bread to the famished. He is as available to sinners as the bread on the table. And in preaching, as in the sacraments, He is handed over to sinners for their nourishment. Where Christ is received by faith, proclamation has done its work. Where Christ is not graciously held out to the congregation the preacher has spoken in vain and the people go hungry.

What does this mean for the ‘application’ of the sermon

Often ‘application’ is taken to mean distilling the text into timeless doctrinal propositions to be turned into contemporary moral injunctions.

preaching 1

Application on this understanding is a discrete portion of the sermon. Once the preacher is done explaining, then come exhortations about our practical response. Usually the application is something along the lines of ‘read your bible, pray, evangelize.’ Occasionally it’s ‘Give money, cut out the porn, volunteer more.’

Now besides being a suspect view of sanctification, this betrays a deficient view of revelation. Here the bible is ‘God’s instruction manual for life.’ The preacher is the expert coach. And Christ? Where is Christ on this understanding?

On the analogy with communion, such preaching is like the minister pressing into our hands not bread but a ‘To do’ list. We leave the communion rail (or rise from the sermon) not so much savouring Christ as resolving to improve. Not glorying in His work but plotting our own.

But what if we took to heart the theology of revelation outlined here? In that case application would be by the pointed driving home of the gospel.

On this model, application is not what we must do on account of the word. Rather, application is what the word itself is doing to us and in us. The Word is being applied to our hearts in lively, surprising, evocative, nourishing ways to the end that He might be trusted. We hear in order to believe (Rom 10:14). This is the work of God – faith (John 6:29). The work of God for which the preacher aims is not so much what the congregation will do on Monday morning having been inspired by the word. The work of God is what God Himself does to the congregation right there in the Sunday sermon.

Application then is the Spirit’s work in driving home the Christ whom we proclaim. It is a work which we cannot perform as preachers but to which we are called nonetheless. In prayerful dependence we follow the way of witness in the Scriptures as they point to Christ. And we point, too. With excitement, with passion, with entreaty. And we say as Moses did regarding the bronze serpent: Look and live!