There was a cold wind coming off the Elbe river that night. Martin Luther raised his collar against the chill and quickly skipped up the steps of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Taking a hammer and pin, he unrolled his 95 theses, written carefully in Latin, and tacked them to the church door. While change had been in the wind for some time, this action sparked a storm of unprecedented strength. For over one thousand years the Catholic church was the only Christian church in the world, and while some had broken away this simple mission of Luther's would change Christendom -- and the world -- forever.
In middle school I had an Old Testament understanding of God. I didn’t know it at the time, but my theology was formed around something called the Retribution Principle, the ancient Middle-Eastern belief that God punishes the wicked in this life. This idea forms the basis for most of the ancient religions of the Near and Middle East, and was even a part of early Israel’s theology, though in their case they developed the inverse principle as well, that God rewards the righteous. Imagine my surprise when, after trying to evangelize my fellow students, I was ostracized, bulled and even spat upon.
We’ve talked about divisions of Old Testament Law before, but only in generalities as – most of the time – those laws do not apply to modern believer. It would be wrong, however, to throw them all out or ignore them completely. Old Testament law can still teach us much about who God is and what he expects from his people, and besides, some of them do still apply. The Law is often divided into three sections: Ceremonial Laws, Civil Laws and Moral Laws. It’s the last of these that is applicable to us today, even after the resurrection of Jesus.
Not long ago we did a series on spiritual disciplines, and it has been brought to my attention that we overlooked one of great importance: confession. In the series we divided the disciplines into two groups, those that are performed corporately and those that are private. Confession straddles these divisions. On the one hand, we confess to God in private and on the other hand we confess to others publicly. Yet for this discipline to have the intended effect, we need to understand why this is so, and how to go about it in a way that honors those we’ve hurt.
Many of the classic horror movies from the 1980’s started with someone making an incantation – something that always ends horribly. In Evil Dead and incantation is mistakenly read aloud from a book, unleashing true evil upon the earth. A serial killer in the movie Chucky recites an incantation on his death bed to force his spirit into that of a toy doll. Examples abound, but are such devices ever used in the real world? Historically, yes, magic rituals, spells, and incantations were all used as a method to bringing calamity upon one’s enemies. Such things were forbidden for the people of God.
This marks the start of a prolonged series on the Gospel of Luke. As we’ve already examined the book of Acts, it seems reasonable that the first Gospel we study should be Luke as both share a common author. Ask anyone to compare the gospels and two facts will almost always be mentioned: (1) that John is the Gospel of Love, and (2) that Luke is the Historical Gospel. While it is true that John gives us a look into Jesus’ personal struggles and relates stories not contained in any other gospel account, it is not true that Luke is purely a historical account.
In times of community disasters – natural or otherwise – churches often step up and offer shelter to those affected, and operational space for rescue teams to stage from. Earlier this year my brother-in-law’s church just did that for their community when the fires that burned much of California and Oregon jumped the river and destroyed communities in their home state of Washington. In the case of hurricane Harvey, many churches were flooded – churches that in the past were used by government rescue teams for saving people and pets in the community. Should those churches be eligible for federal aid money?
Sitting at home one evening, watching Expedition Unknown, I’m captivated by the historical mystery being presented about an empire that vanished over 4,000 years ago. Not only is their empire lost to civilization, but so is their name; archaeologists refer to them by their most famous king, Minas, and call them Minoans. What little they left behind tells us they were an advanced society (they invented one of the first written languages), had their capital on Crete, and excelled at architectural engineering and seamanship. Their religion centered around the bull, but other than these few facts they remain unclaimed in history.
Halloween is a time when thoughts turn to costumes, haunted houses and candy – lots and lots of candy. Traditionally it is also a time when people turn to thoughts of flesh and spirit. In secular culture it is the stuff of horror movies, but to the people of faith it is more about the nature of man and what separates us from the animal kingdom. For thousands of years philosophers and theologians have contemplated these two living realities and their struggle against evil and toward virtue. Little agreement was made, even after all that time, leading us to still wonder.
Yesterday we asked if modern Jesus-followers need to obey any of the Old Testament Law. Many believer’s suggest that, since Jesus fulfilled the law we are no longer beholden to any of it. This wasn’t the teaching of Paul and the early church fathers, however, who wrote a strange letter to be circulated among Gentile believers outlining what laws they should pay attention to. Of all the laws of Moses they listed these few: “abstain from meat that has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what has been strangled and from sexual immorality.”
The American-based company I work for is being acquired by a foreign business, and as with any buy-out there is a lot of planning and a lot of work. We have to tie the two company networks together, integrate software so intelligence can be shared, closing some of the many offices around the world and disconnecting those locations from the corporate communications and networks and more. There is also the approval of governments that must be obtained. And while I’m not involved in all these meetings, I can state with certainty that God is never mentioned or considered in any meaningful way.
Last week we took a fresh look at Jesus’ meeting a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and while some of what we looked at may have been surprising we didn’t look at the central message of Jesus. Jesus said he could give her living water, and that whoever drank of it would never thirst again. This is the first time Jesus uses this metaphor (John 4), and from the second use (John 7) we know that the living water he is referring to is the Holy Spirit. Where did this idea of “living water” come from? Would you believe the well?
