« December 2005 | Main | February 2006 »
January 31, 2006
What did Jesus really mean?
I was reading this morning in John 14, and I had forgotten how some of the statements here puzzle me. The chapter is a part of Jesus’ final teaching to his followers, still in the upper room on the eve of his arrest. In this teaching, Jesus makes some astounding statements. Some of them are very difficult for me to understand, and I don’t know if the reason is because of the apparent implications of what He is saying, or because I am think-headed, or what. But it is certain that He said these things, and they cannot be disregarded. Here are portions from verses 6-26.
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. 7 "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him." 8 Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father '? 10 "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. 11 "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.
This passage is the first one that intrigues me, but it’s actually fairly straightforward. First is Jesus’ claim that there is only one way to God, and that is through him. That creates a problem for those who hold that there are “many paths to God.” Apparently, according to these words from Jesus himself, that just isn’t so.
But the question arises, what about those who have never heard – had no opportunity to hear – the name of Jesus. What about “the native in deepest Africa,” or an indian in the remotest jungles of the Amazon, for example. If they have never heard of Jesus, and have never had the opportunity to accept or reject him, are they condemned out of hand for a lack that is not of their causing? Many say yes. They say that unless a person consciously “accepts Jesus as his savior,” he is lost.
How do we reconcile that with a God who tells us that He is loving, and even more, that He is a God of justice?
Perhaps what Jesus had in mind was not that his name would become a sort of “magic word” that opened the gates of heaven, but rather that it is only by the death and resurrection of Jesus that we have entrance to the Father. Perhaps the truth of God is that He will turn away no one who sincerely cries out to him, marking down the blood of Jesus next to their name on the rolls of heaven.
I suspect we will be surprised at who will be – and perhaps not be – in heaven.
12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. 13 "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
This is a biggie for me. What can Jesus mean when He said that those who believe in him – that included me, and perhaps you – will do greater works than He did? This is mind blowing. It’s a simple straightforward statement, and it doesn’t seem like it should be some sort of theological mystery. Does it mean that we will reach more people than He did? That seems a possibility. After all, Jesus only reached a few thousand people in his fairly short and local ministry. So does He refer to numbers? Perhaps. What if He is talking about a qualitative comparison, and not a numerical one? Could He be saying that we will do the kinds of things – works, He called them – that He did, but that we will do many more of them, because there will be many more of us doing them?
Jesus healed scores of people – it was a central part of his ministry – and set people free from demon influenced. He raised the dead, and He demonstrated in a variety of ways his authority over the physical world. Are we expected to do those kinds of things, too? If that’s his intent, it seems to me that we have missed the boat, big time.
Posted by at 09:41 AM | Comments (11)
January 27, 2006
Chicago Sunrise
Here's the colorful view I was greeted with this morning...
Posted by sdf at 07:01 AM | Comments (1)
January 25, 2006
Sweet Hooters Most Holy
From Fox News; Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Please bless these overly revealing orange shorts, and all who wear them while serving me cheese fries.
The head Catholic priest for the Greater Waco, Texas, area, Monsignor Isidore Rozycki, plans to bless a new Hooters restaurant in a private opening ceremony, according to The Waco Tribune-Herald.
"Blessings are part of the Catholic tradition," Rozycki, the pastor of St. Martin's Church in Tours, told the paper. "You bless the building so it will be a safe haven, so that the families that enter will be blessed, so the employees will be blessed as they support their families."
The public can bask in the Hooters' divinity beginning Tuesday, as the chain's newest location officially opens — since they won't be able to attend the actual blessing.
A man of the cloth blessing an establishment best known for waitresses in short shorts may draw the ire of many local religious leaders, Rozycki admitted, adding that he knows many other residents will find the move bizarre as well.
This fall, some 60 ministers signed a letter expressing disapproval of the restaurant — saying they oppose Hooters because of the sexual innuendo used in ads and the exploitation of female employees.
(Story continues below)
ADVERTISEMENTSAdvertise Here
"I respect [the ministers'] opinion, but I think it's the way and the attitude with which you approach it," Rozycki told The Tribune-Herald. "I look it as a very fun place. It was a place of laughter. You forget about the tensions and stress of daily life and get an opportunity to laugh with friends. And it's great food."
Rozycki, 63, emphasized that giving his blessing is a good way to reach out to his community — pointing to the story of Jesus eating with a tax collector, even though at the time they were thought of as the some of the worst sinners.
Blessing Hooters isn't any different, Rozycki said.
"God's image is in all of these folks," Rozycki told The Tribune-Herald.
Rozycki also said Hooters doesn't deserve its bad rap: Recounting two enjoyable dining experiences at a Dallas-area Hooters.
Without doubt, lustful sinners who head to Hooters will find what they're looking for, Rozycki said, adding that that's true no matter where they go — especially at the local beach or public swimming pool.
Posted by at 03:01 PM | Comments (4)
January 21, 2006
Wanna be free?
I was reading this morning in John’s gospel, chapter 8. I came on a portion that I have read many times before, but which struck me differently this time. It’s verses 31 and 32: “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”
There seems to be a progression here that tells us something important. First, “If you hold to my teaching.” That’s the NIV, and the NASB says “If you abide in my word.” In either case, it is telling us something about living – spending extended time – in the teaching of Jesus, and obeying that teaching. It’s about learning who He is and what He is about by living in his teaching and letting it live in us.
Then He continues, however, and continues the same sentence, saying, “If you live in my teaching, you are really my disciples.” We might understand this two ways. First, if we live in his word, the outcome will be that we will become his followers. Or, the fact of our living in his word is evidence that we are indeed his followers. Both are true.
Then, an additional outcome is that if we abide in his word, and live as his followers, we will know the truth. Truth – ultimate truth – is found in only one place: in the place where we can learn of the One who is Truth. So now, our progression tells us that if we live in his teaching, we will be his followers, and we will know the truth.
Finally, the outcome of following him and knowing the truth is that we are set free. In this passage, the next portion has his listeners responding to him that they are Abraham’s children and have never been slaves of anyone. Jesus passes over the obvious point that these people were in fact living under Roman domination, and had limited freedom. Their protestation is loaded with irony. However, Jesus says to them that they are, indeed, in bondage, though their master is not Rome or any man, but their own sin.
So now we can see the full progression: As we live in the words of Jesus, we become his followers; as we follow him, we learn the truth, because He is Truth, and as we know the truth, we are set free.
Hallelujah!
Posted by at 09:10 AM | Comments (3)
January 20, 2006
What's so hard about being a Christian?
Some years ago, I was asked to speak at a mid-week service of a very conservative church. I chose as my topic the struggles of being a Christian. I talked about Paul's writing in Romans 6-8, and about being in a conflict between righteousness and evil. All in all, I thought it was a passably good teaching.
After I finished, the chairman of the deacon board got up (he was leading the service) and told how he knew nothing of the things I talked about. The Christian life for him, he said, was pure, unadulterated joy.
Who's right? Is it a struggle, or is it just one big hallelujah party? What is easiest and what is most difficult about being a Christian?
Posted by at 04:52 PM | Comments (18)
January 09, 2006
Is God dead in Europe?
From USA Today; 1.9.2006
By James P. Gannon
Two snapshots from a recent tourist trip to Europe: We are in Prague, the lovely and lively capital of the Czech Republic, where the bars and cafes are full, the glitzy crystal and art shops are busy, and the dozens of historic cathedrals and churches are largely empty - except for gawking tourists snapping photos. In The Prague Post, an English-language weekly newspaper, a front-page article reports, in titillating detail, how the city has become Europe's new capital for pornographic filmmaking, while an op-ed examines why only 19% of the people in this once-religious country believe that God exists.
Change the scene to Rome. We are at the Vatican, swimming in a sea of 150,000 people waiting in St. Peter's Square for Pope Benedict XVI to appear at a special celebration for Catholic children who have made their first communion in the past year. Rock bands and kids' choirs entertain the faithful until a roar sweeps through the crowd at the first sighting of the "Popemobile," carrying the waving, white-robed Benedict down barricaded lanes through the throng. The crowd goes wild.
For an American Catholic visitor, Europe is a puzzling and sometimes discouraging place these days. Is God dead here? Many signs suggest that Europeans think so.
Decline in attendance
"Common wisdom has it that alcoholics outnumber practicing Christians and that more Czechs believe in UFOs than believe in God - and common wisdom may be correct," wrote Nate and Leah Seppanen Anderson in a Prague Post commentary; he's a freelance writer, and she's a political science professor at Wheaton College in Illinois and a specialist in Czech politics and society. Surveys show a sharp decline in church attendance and religious practice in most European countries. A series of Eurobarometer surveys since 1970 in five key countries (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy) shows that regular church attendance fell from about 40% of the population to about half that figure. Declines were sharpest in predominantly Catholic nations.
Even so, how do we account for the extraordinary outpouring of grief at Pope John Paul II's death in April and the enthusiasm that his successor seems to evoke? Are these mere public spectacles, signifying nothing about Europe's drift from its religious roots, or are they signs of yearning for something more than peace, prosperity and la dolce vita?
As only an occasional visitor to Europe, I claim no expertise in these matters. But some who do see the emergence of a post-Christian era in Europe that has profound consequences for the continent and perhaps is an ominous portend for the United States. Where Europe has gone, America could be going - and that is a prospect that is frightening Christians and sharpening the religious divide in this country.
Western Europe, the cradle of modern Christianity, has become a "post-Christian society" in which the ruling class and cultural leaders are anti-religious or "Christophobic," writes George Weigel, a Catholic columnist and U.S. biographer of Pope John Paul II. In his new book, The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God, he argues that religious differences help explain the policy tensions between Europe and the United States.
"It would be too simple to say that the reason Americans and Europeans see the world so differently is that the former go to church on Sundays and the latter don't," Weigel writes. "But it would also be a grave mistake to think that the dramatic differences in religious belief and practice in the United States and Europe don't have something important to do with those different perceptions of the world - and the different policies to which those perceptions eventually lead."
A fierce controversy over any mention of Europe's Christian heritage erupted in 2004 when officials were drafting a constitution for the European Union, Weigel notes.
Any mention of the continent's religious past or contributions of Christian culture - in a preface citing the sources of Europe's distinct civilization - would be exclusionary and offensive to non-Christians, many argued. Former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who presided over the process, summed up the dominant view: "Europeans live in a purely secular political system, where religion does not play an important role."
'Demographic suicide'
Among the consequences of Europe's abandonment of its religious roots and the moral code that derives therefrom is a plunge in its birth rates to below the replacement level. Abortion, birth control, acceptance of gay marriage and casual sex are driving the trend. Europe is "committing demographic suicide, systematically depopulating itself," according to Weigel.
United Nations population statistics back him up.
Not a single Western European country has a fertility rate sufficient to replace the current population, which demographers say requires 2.1 children per family. Germany, Russia, Spain, Poland and Italy all have rates of about 1.3 children, according to the U.N. The Czech Republic's is less than 1.2, and even Roman Catholic Ireland is at 1.9 children. (The U.S. rate, which has remained stable, is slightly more than 2 children per woman.)
Fifteen countries, "mostly located in Southern and Eastern Europe, have reached levels of fertility unprecedented in human history," according to the U.N.'s World Population Prospects 2004 revision.
As children grow scarce and longevity increases in Europe, the continent is becoming one vast Leisure World. By 2050, the U.N. projects, more than 40% of the people in Italy will be 60 or older. By mid-century, populations in 25 European nations will be lower than they are now; Russia will lose 31 million people, Italy 7.2 million, Poland 6.6 million and Germany 3.9 million. So Europe is abandoning religion, growing older, shrinking and slowly killing itself. These are signs of a society in eclipse - the Roman Empire writ large. Is this any model for America?
In his 2001 book, The Death of the West, conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan argues that a European-style "de-Christianization of America" is the goal of many liberals - and they are succeeding.
Court decisions that have banned school-sponsored prayer, removed many Nativity scenes from public squares, and legalized gay marriage are part of that pattern, as is the legal effort to erase "In God We Trust" from U.S. currency and "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance.
Europe is showing us where this path leads. It is not the right path for America.
James P. Gannon is a retired journalist and author of A Life in Print: Selections from the Work of a Reporter, Columnist and Editor.
Posted by at 08:47 AM | Comments (6)
January 06, 2006
Robertson's Ignorant Remarks Caused by God’s Wrath
I am so VERY tired of Pat Roberston! My jaw dropped (again) when I read his truly embarassing prognostication that God has smitten Ariel Sharon with a stroke. What a BUFFOON.
In any event, this funny piece from ScrappleFace hits the nail right on the head:
Robertson: Ignorant Remarks Caused by God’s Wrath
by Scott Ott(2006-01-06) — Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson, who yesterday told viewers that God’s wrath spurred Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s massive stroke, today said his own “ignorant remarks are another manifestation of God’s anger.”
The popular TV personality said God punished Mr. Sharon, 77, for dividing the land that God gave to the Israelites, and that Mr. Robertson’s own periodic claims to know the Lord’s motivation behind specific events are part of God’s judgment on the American church.
“If Christians would read the Bible, instead of just watching TV, they would understand that people who claim to know exactly why God does what He does are usually false teachers,” said Mr. Robertson. “God disciplines American Christians for their willful ignorance of the Scriptures by having me embarrass them every 60 days or so with another ridiculous remark.”
Mr. Robertson said that God had judged Ariel Sharon by making him “old and morbidly obese” and thus a high risk for cardio-vascular problems.
“It’s like a lightning bolt from heaven,” he said.
Amen.
Posted by sdf at 03:09 PM | Comments (4)
January 03, 2006
Bored? Pray for trouble. Yeah, right.
In Romans 5, the Apostle Paul wrote that he exulted in tribulation. Assuming that Paul was sane, and that he genuinely meant what he wrote, what do we do with that? “Exult in tribulation”? What kind of person gets excited when life falls apart?
Paul did, and if we understand what happened in Paul, we might, too.
Someone has said that “giftedness is energized by problems.” We learn what gifts God has given us and how He put us together when we face problems. We grow deeper roots in the midst of trial. We can bear greater fruit as the result of what happens in tribulation.
Paul rejoiced in suffering because he was energized and enlivened by challenges and problems which activated his gifts. He was brought to a place where he could say, “I was born for this.”
I once taught from the letters to the churches in Revelation. I told the group that if they were spiritually high-centered, if life had gotten stagnant and boring, one certain solution is to pray for God to send tribulation into your life. Pray for trouble.
Of course, there was no rush of people wanting to tell me what a great teaching that was. But some months later, a young woman who had been there came and told me that she had taken me seriously. She had been dissatisfied with her lukewarm spirituality, and had asked God to stir up her life by sending trials her way.
She told me how that prayer had been answered in abundance, and how it was the turning point in her relationship with God. She began to grow, to know God more intimately, and in the end she became a woman of great godliness. She no longer took God for granted.
Not many of us can say, “I was born for this.” Not many of us want so badly to grow in our relationship with God that we will pray for God to send us trouble.
But those who do find something greater than the finest gold. Those who do find Life. They find life in richness, in abundance, life worth living. And they truly understand what it is to “exult in tribulation.”
Posted by at 02:53 PM | Comments (2)
