·         Jesus Face Cloth in the Empty Tomb

        It is significant that John 20.7 pays particular attention to fact that when Peter and John raced to the empty tomb on that first Easter morning they found the cloth used to cover Jesus' face in burial, carefully folded folded and left aside.   A friend asked me what are we to make of this fact?  Here is my reply:

• Two men saw it – Peter and John – which would make the fact admissible in a Jewish court
• Some scholars have suggested that the scripture implies that Jesus’ resurrection body simply passed through the cloth – as if He were a ghost, leaving the cloth folded.  However that is saying more than the scripture warrants. Also, why would the facecloth be left when the body cloths were left separately?  It doesn’t make too much sense.
• The best explanation is that the scene the disciple discovered was an orderly scene, not a chaotic scene.  What is the significance of this?
• If grave robbers had stolen the body of Christ, they would either have taken the body still wrapped – in which case there would be no cloths left or
• They would have cast the cloths aside to steal the naked body
• In no case would they have paused to take the time to carefully fold the face cloth up
• The suggestion is that the grave was empty – but not because of grave robbers
• Most powerfully the scene is contrasted with John 11.4 – the raising of Lazarus – when Lazarus came out of the grave still wrapped in cloth – so that others had to unwrap his body.  The clear implication is that Jesus was raised from the dead, had time to unwrap Himself (or be unwrapped by angels?) and left the tomb in an orderly fashion. 
• Personally, I can imagine Him being touched by the care that His buriers had taken to wrap His body – a loving act – and Jesus wanted to reciprocate that little token of love.

Why Marxism Misses The Mark

    In a recent sermon I made the unconventional comment that Marxism may have been the best system of organizing a society without reference to God.   Let me quickly say I am 180 degrees opposite from a Marxist.  Karl Marx was a brilliant thinker but he got it 180 degrees wrong.  He managed to think about the deep yearning within every human heart for justice, fairness, security and safety.  He managed to think about equality in a society.  He struggled to eliminate poverty.  But he ignored God, or perhaps more accurately, dismissed God as a projection of human needs, by people, onto a fictional external 'big man in the sky'.  Many fashionable 'new atheists' have taken this thinking right from Marx and still try it out today.
    It think it is fair to say that Marx was really a social theorist.  Marxism thing well in theory, but doesn't live well in practice.  Soviet style Marxism lasted from 1922 to 1989.  In China the same theories are still being worked and reworked, although they bear little resemblance to Das Capital today.  North Korea and Cuba are still Marxists states.  By and large however, Marxism fails every time, because it is a flawed theory.  It's flawed in that God does, in fact, exist.  Additionally, God has made man in His image, and not the other way around.
   It is remarkable to note in every society, in every age, in every culture, in every stripe and shade of human, that people are both moral and spiritual.  There has never been a non-religious society. That should tell us something.  It tells me that people are wired, designed, in their DNA to worship God.  Left without  clear vision of God, we will fall back to worshiping God substitutes.  These are things that we try to use to fill the void in our hearts and minds that should be filled with God.  God-substitutes might be sex, power, money, careers (another version of power), distraction, toys and entertainment (versions of distraction) etc etc.  In other words, if we don't worship God, we worship something else...idols. Everybody worships.  A review of your calendar and bank account spending patterns will help you to identify your idols.
    Eliminating idols is a two fold process.  First, identify the idols and dethrone them, de-sacrilize them, debunk them.  Second, build a real relationship with God.
   
    Karl Marx understood the darkness within human nature, at least to some extent.  He didn't understand the depth of darkness within the human heart.  Any Marxist society ends up being run by a despot.  Ironically, communist societies in practice are little different from fascist societies. Marx also didn't understand much at all about the light in the human soul - the gentle wakings of the Holy Spirit, who can lift a person, any person, from blindness to spiritual daylight.

I believe in the Holy Trinity.  I believe in the cross of the Jesus Christ - fully God, fully human, who died to remove the guilt and punishment for my blindness, my darkness.  I believe in the empty tomb that promises God's victory over my death.  I believe in the Holy Spirit who leads me into all truth. I observe the truth of God in my heart, my mind, my life, and yours, in our lives together.

The Boy With The Bike

 Is the name of a French language movie (with English subtitles).  I love the movies, especially thoughtful films with great character development.  When a movie is life-affirming, so much the better.  So here we are in April, and I think this may be a contender for my movie of 2012.  It's low budget and won some prestigious awards, which usually means plenty of good writing. If you've ever fostered kids before, then this movie will take you right to the heart of what it is to have your world redefined.  A really great movie.

How Do I Vote? Part 3: Psalm 72 

I started to wrestle with the fact that Mitt Romney is a professing Mormon and Barack Obama speaks the language of Christianity.  Now I wasn't born yesterday.  I know full well that politicians are a slippery breed.  Their words and public persona are groomed and spun to give us the public image that will cause people to vote for them, back them and elevate them to positions of political power. I don't distrust all politicians all the time - that would be cynical without proper foundation.  However, I believe what a politician does more than what he or she says. 

On the face of it, Barack Obama's words tell us he is a Christian with a thoroughly biblical understanding of the divinity of Christ and the atoning completed work of Christ on the cross, and the freedom we have in the resurrection.  Check this video out to see what I mean.  Told you.  Those words are good words.  They affirm a biblical, historical, orthodox view of Christ.  Those words bring glory to Christ by explaining to millions of people who Christ is.  They may never have heard it before, but Barack Obama said those words.  Yes he did.  And yet, do his policies and values reflect Jesus Christ?  In part yes, in part no.  I think that he seeks to implement just laws and to protect the humble and needy in our society.  However, if I am an unborn child, I think I might have some issues with his values.  Let's not get caught up in one-issue politics here.  I am trying to take a broad view.  The world is not a simple place, so let's review our politicians across the whole spectrum of what we ask of them: foreign policy to domestic policy; social ethics to business policy; financial policy to military philosophy.  So his words honor Christ, but his policies are a mixed bag.

Then there is Mitt. Let me be plain and simple without being disrespectful. Mitt is a Mormon - a member of the so-called 'Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints'.  This is not a Christian church.  It is a sect, at best.  They are not Christian because they fail each of the key criteria of what has historically and generally been considered to determine what is Christian: They deny the divinity of Christ.  They deny the Trinitarian understanding of God.  They deny that the cross atoned for all sin.  They deny the resurrection as the guarantee of eternal life for all who place their trust in Christ.  Period.

Hint: anytime a belief-system either takes away something from Christ, or adds something to Christ, that is a red flag that they are not biblical, historically orthodox Christians.  Mormons cannot affirm the basic creeds of the Christian Church - the Nicene and Apostle's creed.  They supplement the Bible with the unChristian 'Book of Mormon'.

Don't misread me here. I like Mitt Romney.  He seems like a decent guy.  I like Mormon people.  They have great family values that put most Christians to shame. They really seem like decent people with strong family values. That's great. But they deny the true Christ and substitute Him with a false, corrupted version of him, that many people won't know is a false 'christ'.  If Mitt becomes President, then Mormonism will gain credibility and respectability and a false version of Jesus will be elevated in the public mind, to the likely detriment of the gospel.   I like Mitt, I like many of his polices (not all of them), but he denigrates my Lord by subscribing to a modern sect that is essentially gnostic. 

So who do I vote for now?  A man whose words honor Christ but who's policies I mostly do not agree with (I am speaking just personally for myself at this point), or a man who dishonors Christ with his religion, but who's policies I tend to agree with more?   I need further thought on this.

Now to Psalm 72.  Read the whole Psalm but especially verses 2, 3, 4, then 7 and 12, 13, 14:

   2 May he judge your people with righteousness,

    and your poor with justice.

    3      May the mountains yield prosperity for the people,

    and the hills, in righteousness.

    4      May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,

    give deliverance to the needy,

    and crush the oppressor.

    7      In his days may righteousness flourish

    and peace abound, until the moon is no more.

    12      For he delivers the needy when they call,

    the poor and those who have no helper.

    13      He has pity on the weak and the needy,

    and saves the lives of the needy.

    14      From oppression and violence he redeems their life;

    and precious is their blood in his sight.

These words reflect the social ethic of God as expressed throughout the whole Bible. i select them because they are representative and summarize what the whole Bible tells us is God's heart and mind.

I conclude that I should vote for the candidate in any election that lives out these values. That is honoring my citizenship of heaven first, and letting it shape and direct my actions and choices as a citizen of a nation.  Could I vote for a non Christian President?  I think so, if he or she lives out these values.  Sure, I would prefer if they were Christian.  I notice in my Bible that God uses plenty of pagan rulers to do His will.  Think of Cyrus for one. You could name a dozen more.  Could I vote for a Roman Catholic candidate, a Mormon candidate, or even (gasp!) a Muslim candidate, if they implemented and lived out the values expressed in Psalm 72.  yes, on balance, i think I could.  After all, I am electing a civic official, not a church leader.  Would I prefer the true name of Jesus be glorified in our public life.  Certainly.

Am I finished thinking this through?  No.  I am continuing to pray and so offer these blog posts to elicit thoughtful, gracious, prayerful, intelligent response.

Please don't react.  Sleep on it.  Then let me know what you think.

Thanks!

How Do I Vote? Part 2: Citizenship Considerations

In my first blog post I framed a question in order to tease apart the considerations of how a Christian should consider voting in the upcoming US Presidential election.  By the way, I am NOT going to conclude by telling you, or even me, who to vote for.  That's between you, your conscience, and The Holy Spirit.  My interest here is how we will each make the decision.

I want to start by considering that every Christian has two citizenships.  If you have read Augustine's brilliant book Two Cities, then you'll know where I am heading with this.  If you haven't then it'll still seem familiar because of Augustine's huge influence on our thinking.  Yes, I have a citizenship in my nation here on planet Earth.  I was British, but now I am American. (By the way, you may have been born in America, but I chose America - so I am definitely patriotic!)  One day, 36 years ago for me, I chose to follow the Lord Jesus Christ for the rest of my days.  I turned away from my old life and its self-centered priorities and identity, and started a new life with the living Jesus Christ as the center of the universe, recognizing that the Holy Bible was food to me, prayer was breathing, and fellowship with believers (i.e. church) was a drink of water to me.   A new life, a new identity, and a new citizenship...in heaven.  Heaven is more that a location, it is a Kingdom where God reigns unchallenged.  Heaven has collided with 'the world' and continues to intersect in the heart of every Christian, and in every place where God is working to redeem and recreate the fallenness of His original creation.

It is more than just a metaphor then to refer to heaven as a 'place' where the new, ultimate reality of our new life as Christians takes place.  It is, I would argue, more real, more actual than our old lives lived without reference to God.  One fine day, Heaven will overwhelm and transform this old world.  The apostles referred to that total re-creation as the 'new heaven and the new earth'.  Indeed the two go together because they will then be the same thing.

In the meanwhile we are in this world but not of it.  Paul in Philippians gives us language and thought to help us live in the 'already, but not totally yet' nature of the heaven that has started to break into the old world. Philippians 3:20 "But our citizenship is in heaven...".  yes indeed.  That is our primary identity.  And from there we take our values.  This is a permanent citizenship and in all ways is superior to our worldly citizenship, which is temporary.

Consider Jesus' teaching in Luke 20:20-26.  The scribes tried to trick Jesus into either committing blasphemy by paying homage to the Caesar Cult, or transgressing Roman law by refusing to pay Rome's taxes.  Christ resolves the political conflict by changing the frame of reference.  Paying to Caesar what is Caeser's was more that a deft tactic to slip out of the dilemma.  What 'amazed' the crowds was the second part of His answer: Give to God what is God's.  What belongs to God?  Everything!  Even the tribute that Caesar demands.  So by understanding that God has first-call on everything, you are now free to render the tax to the civilian authorities that they demand.    God's priorities first, then the state's.  Heaven's rule first, and then within that context, consider our earthly obligations.

If you doubt this interpretation, lay it alongside Romans Chapter 13.  We Christians render the honor that civilian authorities require of us only because we understand that our first duty, to God, is fulfilled when we do so.  Good government gives us civic peace, and the gospel can readily spread when there is peace in the land. Sure enough, there can be earthly government that utterly conflicts with God's rule.  When that happens (the 'beast state') Christians are to stand up for heaven's values and lovingly confront evil government.  (Romans 13 is tempered by Revelation 13.)   Christians are liable to be persecuted and even executed when that happens, but none the less, that is the call placed upon each of us.  Christians have been executed for standing up to evil empires from Nero to Nazi.  But let's not have any nonsense talk that we in the US today are in that situation.  We are nowhere close to it.  Maybe if you lived in North Korea, but not North America.  Let's reject hyperbole.

So, back to Philippians and 1:27a "Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ..."  Yes, while I am here in this little, short, wonderful life, I will live with the call of God as my first priority.  I will order all of my earthly business in the light of my higher identity - my citizenship of heaven.  I will love Christ by living obediently to His commands and values.  Being a Protestant, I understand that I will work that out personally.  Not individually, for I am part of the church, but personally.   I am a member of the church, and so I also reject the rampant individualism of the modern age.  That is why I am writing all this on my blog - so you, my Christian brother and sister, can help us to think this through with me.

Now that I understand that I will make my voting decision based on my identity as a Christ-disciple, a Christ-follower, a 'little Christ' - that is, a Christian, I want to consider in part 3, a couple of different approaches.

Thank for reading this far.  You're obviously a thinker! :-)

How Do I Vote? Part 1: Framing the Question

If I am to boldly live out my calling to shepherd (i.e. pastor) my church, then I have to work through every practical implication of my new life being lived in, to and for Jesus Christ.  This will necessarily take me into some controversial areas.  One such area is to consider the ways in which I will make the decision of which candidate to vote for in civilian elections.
Consequently, I do not invite your reactions (there are already too many of those in our world!) but I do invite your carefully considered and prayed-through responses. Help me think this through.  Let's reason together as brothers and sister who tenderly care for each other.  Let the dialog be filled with kindness, and free of the acrimony and knee-jerk hostility that sadly characterizes so much of the political discussion in our society.  Christians don't talks and write like that.  No.  Rather we speak the truth, in love.  That qualifier - 'in love' - means that we speak the truth only in love, never without love.  Love means good manners, politeness, mutual respect, with graciousness, that always bring glory to our Lord, because as children of God, we always represent God, and His graciousness. If we loose an argument but argue with love, then we have won the greater point. We have reflects God's graciousness.  People will remember our grace long after they have forgotten what the argument was about.

I guess the first thing to say is this:  I am neither a Republican, not a Democrat.   More on that later.  So I don't ever vote along 'party lines'.  God has given me a decent brain and expects me to use it.  That means not allowing someone else to tell me how I should vote.  I need to think through each voting issue for myself. Political parties may or may not be a political necessity but I am under no obligation to join one.

Second thing to say is this: I have the earthly privilege of being a citizen of the United States.  Part of that privilege is the right, and the duty, to vote.  To not vote is to squander the God-given influence I have been given in order to effect and drive the democracy I am a part of.  To not vote is to be delinquent in my duty as a citizen.  I have heard many people say that a single vote counts for nothing and politics is a joke anyway.  Maybe.  However, if a totalitarian regime was to take your vote away from you, then you would sure want it back again!
If we had any doubts about the power of a single vote, we need only think back a few short years to the 2000 General Election of George W Bush against Al Gore when the presidency was decided by 537 votes from Florida.  I would imagine that there are 538 democrats in Florida who now wish they had voted!

Let me end this first post in this series by framing the question.  It seems likely that in November I will have the choice to vote for either President Barack Obama or Governor Mitt Romney to be the next President of the United States.  What considerations should we, as Christians, use to decide how to vote?

That's the question.

In my next blog post, I will start by considering the two citizenships that each of us has, and which one drives the other.

Am I Saved? Part  2: Sorry

As Elton John once sang "Sorry seems to be the hardest word".  When it comes to God, most people in our North American 21st century society ignore Him.  We mostly try hard not to think about God.  He is the ultimate 'inconvenient Truth'. Instead we live our lives the way we want to. 'I did it MY way' ought to be carved on most tombstones.  This is the equivalent of the lunatics running the asylum.  We are not wired to work or live independently of God, it's just not in our DNA.  When we do, we find in ourselves and others, despair, pain, emptiness, a need for purpose and significance that nothing in this world can fulfill.  This 'hole in our soul' sits there, like a meal that we ate, but cannot digest.  Consciously or unconsciously, we cope by either addressing the void within us by trying to fill it with whatever comes to hand: romance, sex, power, or self-adoration.  Or we try to distract ourselves so we don't notice it for a while: the entertainment lifestyle.  We buy a never ending stream of toys, immerse ourselves in movies, books, soap opera TV or the Internet.  It's stupid, ugly and insults God, who has made us, created a wonderful future for us, and invites us to live with Him in the here and now, as well as forever.

Basically, everybody worships something: work, spouse, money, lifestyle....or we could worship exactly what we were designed for: God.   Step One to being saved is to recognize our deep need to stop living without God, and to start living with Him.  Not just 'with' Him, but to invite Him into the very center of our lives. Indeed to hand over 'our' life to Him, so that it becomes His life in us.  We can see that there is a throne in the middle of our heart, and we must step down from it, bow down at God's feet and ask Him if he will graciously sit on the throne of our lives.

Step One then, is to recognize that our life is a bankrupt and hollow pretense without God ruling over us, living in us, and restarting our lives.  Sorry.  I am sorry God, that I have lived so far without you.  I have tried to ignore you.  I am truly sorry.  Please forgive me for my blind selfishness.  Please forgive me.

These are more than words. Words come from our very core.  God promises that if you confess your sin, He WILL forgive you.  It's not a cheap forgiveness.  As you'll discover it costs Him His life, and to turn away from yourself, will cost you what is left of your life.  The Bible speaks of dieing to ourselves.  The word sorry should tear at us as we say it to God.  The good news is, God has a new life to swap for you old one.

Next step: Thank you

Gandhi's Seven Deadly Sins

I read today that Gandhi taught the students at his ashram in India that there are, in his worldview, seven deadly sins.  They are:
1. Politics without principle
2.Wealth without work
3. Commerce without morality
4. Pleasure without conscience
5. Education without character
6. Science without humanity
7. Worship without sacrifice.

I believe that these tenets show just how deeply Gandhi was influenced by Christianity, and especially the Sermon on the Mount. How wonderful it would be if we acted in all that we did with these warnings in mind.  I might perhaps change number 6 to read 'Science without humility" which might or might not be an improvement.
My hope is that every one of our lives will be a light in the world and salt on the earth - a life in which every tiny aspect is an act of Worship to Jesus Christ.  Let's live for Jesus.