Happy Birthday to Joyce

Yesterday we celebrated Joyce’s *#th birthday. Technically, she is still celebrating it, since she was born in California and it is still the 21st there. The celebration actually began when the family came over Wednesday night to open more of their Christmas presents (Late postal dleivery here tends to stretch Christmas out through January – back in the 80’s we were still receiving Christmas presents in Palau in March). Last night we went to a new Mexican restaurant, Taco Sinaloa, in Tumon. The food was excellent, the meet was seasoned and the sauces and toppings were made fresh. We had a good time celebrating with Mike, Samantha and the kids.

Joyce spent some quality time with Arete

We all enjoyed the food and posing for pictures

Back From Chuuk

I arrived back on Guam from Chuuk last night. I was only there two days, but I think we got a lot accomplished. My main reason for going was to accompany and introduce our new English teacher for the PIU program at the FCC campus, Jered Hunter. I met Jered in South Carolina last October at Columbia International University and he agreed to come out to Tol for the Spring semester. (I snatched the picture on the right from his Facebook page.) We met Monday morning with our Chuuk TF Director Iotaka Choram and with the FCC Campus Director Yosta Lodge to get classes and details worked out. Jered will be teaching two remedial and two academic program classes this semester. That is Jered with all his stuff preparing to head out for Tol (left). I was also thrilled to see PIU 2008 graduate Happiness Lodge in our meeting as well. Happi, who graduated from International Theological Seminary with an M.Div., is working on curriculum for FCC and will be teaching some classes for us. This is another major step forward for our partership with them. 8 courses will be taught at FCC and 2 at the Berea TF this semester.

Sunday Reading: Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word

For my Sunday readings, I am trying to work in some old books among the new ones, so I thought it was time to go back to one of the Church Fathers. Athanasius’ On The Incarnation of the Word of God is one of the most important writings of the church fathers, and in Christian history, and one of the earliest and best defenses of the doctrine of the Trinity and incarnation of Jesus Christ as both fully God and fully human. I am reading the Logos version from Select Works and Letters, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. Archibald T. Robertson, vol. 4, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church

For the more He is mocked among the unbelieving, the more witness does He give of His own Godhead; inasmuch as He not only Himself demonstrates as possible what men mistake, thinking impossible, but what men deride as unseemly, this by His own goodness He clothes with seemliness, and what men, in their conceit of wisdom, laugh at as merely human, He by His own power demonstrates to be divine, subduing the pretensions of idols by His supposed humiliation—by the Cross—and those who mock and disbelieve invisibly winning over to recognise His divinity and power. 36

Athanasius begins by defending the doctrine of creation ex nihilo. This is relevant because the incarnation fixes what went wrong (human sin) with the original creation – both the rebellion in the spiritual world and that of Adam and Eve in the Garden. In a way, the incarnation begins a re-creation of the world. If a re-creation was needed, humans were incapable to do it. God had to step in and accomplish it.

God is not weak; but that out of nothing, and without its having any previous existence, God made the universe to exist through His word, 37

For if, out of a former normal state of non-existence, they were called into being by the Presence and loving-kindness of the Word, it followed naturally that when men were bereft of the knowledge of God and were turned back to what was not (for what is evil is not, but what is good is), they should, since they derive their being from God who IS, be everlastingly bereft even of being; in other words, that they should be disintegrated and abide in death and corruption. 38.

The God who spoke life into being is the only one who could fix the problem of death that came into the world through sin. The word that spoke life into creation was the Word who, coming into the world, could bring life back from the dead. Almighty God could not allow his creation to waste away into nothingness. Only by taking on a body and defeating death, could God Himself restore life into creation.

Death having gained upon men, and corruption abiding upon them, the race of man was perishing; the rational man made in God’s image was disappearing, and the handiwork of God was in process of dissolution.  39.

He took pity on our race, and had mercy on our infirmity, and condescended to our corruption, and, unable to bear that death should have the mastery—lest the creature should perish, and His Father’s handiwork in men be spent for nought—He takes unto Himself a body, and that of no different sort from ours.  40

While it was impossible for the Word to suffer death, being immortal, and Son of the Father; to this end He takes to Himself a body capable of death, that it, by partaking of the Word Who is above all, might be worthy to die in the stead of all, and might, because of the Word which was come to dwell in it, remain incorruptible, and that thenceforth corruption might be stayed from all by the Grace of the Resurrection. 40–41

The second reason for the incarnation was so that people could know God and thus, be restored as the image of God. Sin had removed humanity so far from God that they were in danger of losing their reason and reason for existence. Jesus, by taking on human flesh, provided a way that fleshly people could experience God with their senses and learn about him from the ground up. God lowered himself to human level to make connection with the people he created so he could raise them up to what He intended them to be.

For by men’s means it was impossible, since they are but made after an image; nor by angels either, for not even they are (God’s) images. Whence the Word of God came in His own person, that, as He was the Image of the Father, He might be able to create afresh the man after the image…He took, in natural fitness, a mortal body, that while death might in it be once for all done away, men made after His Image might once more be renewed. None other then was sufficient for this need, save the Image of the Father. 43

He sojourns here as man, taking to Himself a body like the others, and from things of earth, that is by the works of His body [He teaches them], so that they who would not know Him from His Providence and rule over all things, may even from the works done by His actual body know the Word of God which is in the body, and through Him the Father. 44

The Word disguised Himself by appearing in a body, that He might, as Man, transfer men to Himself, and centre their senses on Himself, and, men seeing Him thenceforth as Man, persuade them by the works He did that He is not Man only, but also God, and the Word and Wisdom of the true God. 44–45

Thus, the incarnation becames the ultimate revelation of God. The 2nd person of the Trinity completely lowers himself to the level of man without, at any time, ceasing to be God.

But these things are said of Him, because the actual body which ate, was born, and suffered, belonged to none other but to the Lord: and because, having become man, it was proper for these things to be predicated of Him as man, to shew Him to have a body in truth, and not in seeming. But just as from these things He was known to be bodily present, so from the works He did in the body He made Himself known to be Son of God. 46

First Friday Chapel

Yesterday was our first regular chapel of the semester. We enjoyed a rousing time of worship which included one of my favorite hymns (The Love of God) as part of a medley. I had the privilege to be the first chapel speaker of the semester. I am not sure how that tradition got started, but I enjoy having the opportunity to do it. I preached on “how to avoid being your own worst enemy” from Joshua 7-8. It was fun. There was a good response from the students as I tried to make the sermon a bit more interactive than they are used to. We have chapel on Tuesdays and Fridays at 11AM. The community is always welcome to join us.

Paul and the Faithfulness of God Chapter 1

Back in a September post I announced that my New Testament reading for this school year would be Paul and the Faithfulness of God, vol. 4, Christian Origins and the Question of God, by N. T. Wright. My plan was to post on my blog with every chapter completed. I have been posting quotes from the book on my Facebook page 3 times a week, on Mon-Wed-Fri, but have not produced the promised  “once a week or so I will sum up my thoughts about it on this blog.”  I didn’t make that goal and so now I am trying to catch up.  Each chapter is long (chapter 1 is 75 pages) so what you are getting here is a very brief summary. I welcome comments and discussion on my Facebook page. By the way I am using the Logos version of the book.

Wright enters the worldview of Paul through the short letter to Philemon. His point is that Paul sees the Jesus event as something that changes everything. Jesus’ life, death and resurreection completes the story of humanity and Israel and becomes the center around which everything else must be shaped. It not only reconciles humans to God, but totally changes the way humans relate to one another, breaks down the old social structures that divided people and reorients them back to God’s original intention for humanity

If we had no other first-century evidence for the movement that came to be called Christianity, this letter ought to make us think: Something is going on here. Something is different. People don’t say this sort of thing. That isn’t how the world works. A new way of life is being attempted—by no means entirely discontinuous with what was there already, but looking at things in a new way, trying out a new path. 6

He does not refer to Onesimus as a ‘fugitive’. That is not the category in which he wants Philemon to see his former slave, even for a moment. No: he is Paul’s beloved son and therefore Philemon’s beloved brother. Those who have read this letter without seeing the profound, and profoundly revolutionary, theology it contains should ponder the social and cultural earthquake which Paul is attempting to precipitate—or rather, which he believes has already been precipitated by God’s action in the Messiah. 9

For Paul, much as he valued freedom, the mutual reconciliation of those who belonged to the Messiah mattered more than anything else. For Philemon to have responded angrily to Paul’s letter by giving Onesimus his freedom but declaring that he never wanted to set eyes on him again would have meant defeat for Paul. Reconciliation was what mattered. That is why Paul wrote this letter. 12

Paul is teaching Philemon, and indeed Onesimus (as according to Richard Hays Paul had to teach the Corinthian church), to think within the biblical narrative, to see themselves as actors within the ongoing scriptural drama: to allow their erstwhile pagan thought-forms to be transformed by a biblically based renewal of the mind. Here we see one of the most fundamental differences between Pliny and Paul. Pliny’s appeal, we remind ourselves, reinscribed the social dynamics already present. Paul’s subverted them. 15

The cross itself, though not mentioned explicitly in Philemon, emerges here, embodied in the ministry of the imprisoned apostle, as the theological substructure of the pastoral appeal. This is what gives energy and colour to the personal aims and rhetorical strategy of the entire short composition...Paul’s Jewish worldview, radically reshaped around the crucified Messiah, challenges the world of ancient paganism with the concrete signs of the faithfulness of God. 20–21

Because of Jesus, Paul understood everything differently—God, the world, God’s people, God’s future, and in and through it all God’s faithfulness. 22

The second section focuses on how Paul integrated theology (Paul’s innovation was to place theology at the center of his worldview). The praxis, symbols, worship, language etc of Christianity would come from theology – who is this Jesus and what difference does He make? This required all Christians to be thinkers, with the enablement of the indwelling Spirit, and theologians to a certain degree. Jesus would be the lens through which all life would be viewed.

One of the extraordinary achievements of Paul was to turn ‘theology’ into a different kind of thing from what it had been before in the world either of the Jews or of the pagans. One of the central arguments of the present book is that this was the direct result and corollary of what had happened to Paul’s worldview. Paul effectively invented ‘Christian theology’ to meet a previously unknown need, to do a job which had not, until then, been necessary. 26

For Paul, there is no question that the praxis of the Messiah-following people created a context within which it made sense to think the revolutionary thoughts he urged his converts to think. But it is equally clear that he believed that the renewal of the mind through the work of the spirit would generate and sustain new patterns of behaviour. 27

The study of Paul’s worldview leads to a striking, dramatic conclusion: this worldview not only requires a particular ‘theology’ to sustain it, but also requires that ‘theology’ itself play a new role, integrated with the worldview itself. 30

Humans are worshipping creatures, and even when they don’t consciously or even unconsciously worship any kind of god they are all involved in the adoring pursuit of something greater than themselves. Worship transforms humans, all of us, all the time, since you become like what you worship. 36

The Jewish worldview (monotheism) redefined, with the idea being “in Christ” through the Spirit at the center of this redefinition, is what dirves Paul’s theology. This is why understanding the Old Testament in context is so viital to understanding the New Testament. He sums up Paul’s theology as “one God, one people, one future for the world.”

Monotheism is indeed at the heart of Paul’s theology, not simply as ‘what he believed about God’ in a sense that could be detached from what he believed about other topics (not least salvation), but rather as the integrating theme which explains and gives depth to all the others. 37

Paul remained a deeply Jewish theologian who had rethought and reworked every aspect of his native Jewish theology in the light of the Messiah and the spirit, resulting in his own vocational self-understanding as the apostle to the pagans...and we shall find that, precisely because his Jewish theology was rooted in creational monotheism, it necessarily addressed, in a variety of ways of which the letter to Philemon is one, the wider worlds of philosophy and empire, of home and market-place, of human life in its many dimensions, of the real life of the whole cosmos. 46

The proper angle from which to approach Paul’s engagement with his pagan context is precisely his deep-rooted Jewish understanding, just as the proper angle from which to examine those deep Jewish roots is his sense that now, in the messianic age, it was time to confront the world of the gentiles. Because of the Messiah and the spirit all these things came together—and, with them, the lesser dichotomies also, as scholarship has seen them, of justification and being-in-Christ, of apocalyptic and covenant, of old and new ‘perspectives’, of theology and ethics, of spirituality and politics. 47

Paul’s theology must be discussed in terms of history, exegesis and application. That is we have to understand Paul from what we know of his world, what we read in his writings and within his own times. Even though we cannot do this perfectly there are tools that help us to do this. We need to strive to find what Paul meant when he wrote something, not what we want it to mean.

Paul did not write the kind of systematic treatises in which he would have taken care to cover all possible ‘topics’. There is always at least an implicit gap between the textually limited ‘Paul’ we know from the letters and the hypothetically wider ‘Paul’ who might well have had other things to say—if only some church had sent him a letter to ask him about them. 50–51

Critical Realism: a self-critical epistemology which, in rejecting the naive realism which simply imagines that we are looking at the material with a God’s-eye view, rejects also the narcissistic reductionism of imagining that all apparent perception is in fact projection, that everything is really going on inside our own heads. Critical realism engages determinedly in a many-sided conversation, both with the data itself and with others (including scholars) who are also engaging with it. 51

A historical hypothesis, like a scientific hypothesis, must (a) get in the data, (b) do so with appropriate simplicity, and (c) shed light on areas outside the basic subject-matter of the inquiry...We assume that writers intended their texts to mean something and we also assume that it is in principle possible to move towards the discovery of that intention. 54

I have to learn that life is more complicated than drawing up a list of good people, who said all the things I agree with, and bad people, who said the opposite. As Solzhenitsyn said, the line between good and evil runs through each one of us and every human community.
One of the reasons we do history, in fact, is because it acts as a brake, a control, on our otherwise unbridled enthusiasm for our own ideas...What history demands, and exegesis facilitates, is suspension of judgment in order to learn wisdom. 54–55

We need to strive to find what Paul meant when he wrote something, not what we want it to mean. Wright decries theologians who remove books from the Pauline corpus (Ephesians and Colossians) because they don’t fit their theoology of Paul. He advocates using all the traditional Pauline books to define Pauline theology, although he sees 1 Timothy and Titus as the only ones that might be questioned.

Even if we’ve given up making Paul the preacher of our favourite theology, we still want him to back up our assumed ideology; and the thought of those differentiations within the household, with their threat of something we might even call ‘hierarchy’, is too much to bear. 58

This note of hermeneutical caution may be thought appropriate, and it, too, should haunt the following pages, should stand beside the historian even in the moment of historical triumph, whispering, ‘Remember that you too are hermeneutically conditioned.’ 67

He closes the chapter using the letter to Philemon as an allegory in which traditional orthodoxy (Philemon) and critical historical approaches (Onesimus) are at odds. Wright urges, like Paul, that they be brought back together. The Paul of history was a pastor with practical concerns and we need both sides working together to understand him.

If you want to understand Paul, understand him as someone with his feet on the ground (or in the stocks) of messy reality, his shameful sufferings openly visible to the embarrassment of the high-minded, lofty Corinthians and perhaps also of their successors today...How much safer Paul would have been had he founded a seminary in Tarsus or Antioch and required future church leaders to sit at his feet day by day! But how much less like the apostle whose calling was not just to speak of, but actually to embody, the covenant faithfulness of God. 70

As we shall see when we examine (Paul's) worldview, the symbols, praxis and stories which contribute to it are none of them simply about ‘ideas’ and ‘beliefs’. They are about the creator God, his world and his people—and this world and these people are creatures of space, time and matter, open by definition to historical enquiry, living life in public without shame, modelling a way of life which is precisely in and for the world, affirming the goodness of the creator’s universe and of human beings within it. 72

Reading in Numbers This Week #3 (Chapters 12-19)

I am continuing to work through a discussion on the book of Numbers, with the commentary, Numbers: God’s Presence in the Wilderness, by Iain M. Duguid. Previous posts on Numbers can be seen here and here. I have been posting quotes from the book on my Facebook page on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday (NT is Mon-Wed-Fri) and we can discuss comments and questions about the passage there. As usual, quotes from the commentary are in blue below…

The rebellion against Moses begins in chapter 12 with his own family. Miriam and Aaron, because of jealousy over Moses' God-given position of leadership stir up trouble by grumbling about his "Cushite" wife. They are jealous that God speaks directly to Moses. Ironically, when God appears to them, they get a direct word of judgment from God. Miriam is stricken with a disease that makes her look like a corpse. The 2nd rebellion is much more severe and directed against God. As the 12 tribal leaders are sent to the land to scout it out they agree on the bounty of the land but disagree on their ability to take it. The majority emphasize the difficulties and do not mention God's promises or past saving acts. Joshua and Caleb urge the people that with God's help they can do it. The people reject Joshua and Caleb's advice and God judges them by allowing their expectation of death in the wilderness to come true. However, the children they thought would become the spoils of war would become the ones that God would bring into the land.

What is the cure for the grumbling that flows from envy? It is the cross. There God paid the price for your unworthy soul and for mine. There he purchased us back to be his servants, weak and feeble though we are. When we contemplate the greatness of his grace to us in the cross, we cannot doubt that he has our best interests at heart in the way he has brought our circumstances together, even though they are different from the circumstances of others around us. Numbers 12, 165

If you fear the Lord, you will be free from the fear of your enemies; if you forget God, you will inevitably fear men. Numbers 13-14, 170

The eye of faith recognizes that in this world, reality is not accurately measured whenever we are “humanly speaking.” This is God’s world, in which his Word and his promises must ultimately prevail. No matter how great the opposition, if the Lord is pleased with us, our future is assured. Numbers 13-14, 171

Chapter 15 interjects laws about sacrifice and clothing into the narrative. This is God's response to the people's decision not to enter the Promised Land. The sacrifices were to remind them of their privileges and responsibilities as the people of God. The privilege was to be in relationship with God and to enjoy relationship, protection and the blessings that went with that. The responsibility was to be the unique people of God, a people who followed their king and were a "nation of priests" to the world. The sacrifices reminded people of the exalted position they held by God's grace. To reject this was dangerous and subject to judgment because God has ordered creation to bring blessing to those who obey him. The harsh judgment on the man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath was a judgment of treason on a man who publicly "shook his fist" in the face of God. Ultimately, obedience brings blessing, rebellion brings judgment.

Like the Israelites, we have false beliefs about God that we persist in doggedly in spite of all of the evidence to the contrary. Until these deep-rooted core beliefs are challenged, little real change is possible in our lives. That is why even when we recognize that our sinful patterns lead to painful consequences, we often find that we cannot change them. Numbers 15, 183

The motivating power of all sin lies in failing to believe God’s good purpose for us, which is for us to glorify him and enjoy him forever... Whatever we are pursuing when we sin, it is always something less than God’s good purpose for us. It is a functional idolatry of something other than the Lord. Numbers 15, 185

Having given the Lord’s people laws that demonstrate his mercy (15:1–21) and his justice (vv. 22–36), the final commandment in this section speaks of the Lord’s covenant faithfulness. The tassels were designed to remind Israel who they were by God’s grace, which in turn was the foundation for their call to obedience. Numbers 15, 194

In Numbers 16 and 17 the rebellion reaches its climax. Korah complains that Aaron is not the only one who should be high priest while Korah, Dathan and Abiram complain about the lack of positive results of Moses' leadership. Instead of defending himself Moses calls upon the Lord to vindicate him and to show who he has chosen for leadership. God answers the prayer quickly as the rebellious Levites are destroyed by the fire of God and the other rebels are swallowed up by the ground beneath them. This did not end the rebellion. Amazingly the people still reject God's leader Moses and thus, reject God. Plague breaks out in the camp and, amazingly, the two rejected leaders save the people as Moses intercedes for them and Aaron runs into the midst of the plague between the living and the dead to save them. Finally God gives the sign of the budding almond rod to show who was his real choice for leadership. The rods represented authority and God showed, by making Aaron's rod into a living likeness of the menorah, that Aaron's family, as high priest, would be the channel of the blessing of God's presence to the nation.

Those who desire to lead should be examined and tested, not just so their abilities and gifts can be discerned, but so others can discern as far as possible their hearts and motives. Character is far more crucial than knowledge or gifting, important though those are. Do such persons simply long for the prestige of the title of elder or pastor, or do they have a genuine desire to serve God and his people?.. It is a fearful responsibility to lead God’s people, and not one to be taken up lightly. Numbers 16, 203

Biblical leaders, however, serve because God has called them to that position and recognize that sometimes even those whom God has called may not see dramatic visible results. Numbers 16, 204

The Lord took Aaron’s dead stick and turned it into a miniature lampstand in the midst of the other twelve sticks, a sign of life and future blessing in the midst of the community. Numbers 17, 214

After the rebellion God gives direction to the people about tithing and holiness. These laws were, in many ways, a gracious promise that the people would have plenty and be able to give and that God would provide a way for their connection with him. The principle behind the tithe in chapter 18 was that all people belong to God and thus, the tribe of Levi become the "tithe" of the people to the service of God. In addition, the people were to tithe from their agricultural products to support the work of ministry and the ministers. There were multiple tithes in the Sinai Covenant to support the work of ministry, to provide for the poor and needy and even to have a big celebration of God's goodness (Deut. 14). The ashes of the red heifer (19) symbolically provided cleansing for the regular contamination of living in a world of sin, decay and death. Symbolically, the spotless heifer took on the death that sin caused as the penalty of contamination was taken by those that prepared the ashes. The ashes then provided, like confession, a "faithful and just" application of forgiveness.

The Lord is not only the inheritance of the priests and Levites but the inheritance of all of the saints as well...If we understand and remember these truths, it will be our delight to give generously to support those whom the Lord has called to serve him full-time. We will be overjoyed when we have an opportunity to meet the needs of the poor, and we will make it a priority to show hospitality and celebrate fellowship with the Lord’s people in his presence. That is the essence of all true Christian tithing and giving. Numbers 18, 238

Instead of redefining sin so that it no longer covers the things that we do, or pretending that sin doesn’t exist in our carefully sheltered world, it is far better to recognize the inevitable reality of our contact with sin and let that realization drive us back to God and to the cleansing he has provided. Numbers 19, 244

The Students Are Back 2

We are into the middle of the first week of the new semester. Last week we made it through registration and new student orientation. This week began with a general orientation and then classes started on Tuesday. My class is on line and we will have our first virtual discussion meeting tomorrow afternoon Guam time. Yesterday was the first chapel, the traditional welcome chapel. The theme of the meeting was “we are here for you, the student!” Here are a few pictures of the first chapel of the semester: On the left, we are about ready to start; and on the right Mike leads us in a rousing action song.

Jamie Mason leads the general orientation on Monday

Nikki and Johathan Heimbach instruct the students about discipleship, student responsibilities, “clean and green,”  community service and dormitory policies