Knowing the difference between noise and His Voice.

As I have been reading John Chapter 10 I confess I mostly see in the chapter what has been taught to me by mentors and commentaries. Jesus is the “good” shepherd. This was a culture that had little respect for shepherds, but Jesus says he is “good” one worthy of our respect. Jesus the gate, meaning he protects his flock from both the thieves and the strangers by laying before them. The sheep seem to supernaturally know his voice apart from the voice of others, often seen by us reformers as Jesus pointing to God’s electing work among the sheep. All of this I learned from others and am grateful for their wisdom. But I wanted to see this section with new eyes, and I truly attempted to wrestle with the text, arcing it and color coding it with crayons borrowed from the children’s wing.

Jesus is the central figure of this book and this parable, but I did decide to stop and list what the sheep are doing during all this. Finally I felt like I had found what the Lord was looking to show me in this verse. The sheep have a role in all this. They hear Jesus’ voice. They follow him, they don’t follow strangers. They flee the wolf and scatter. They know the shepherd. This for me was the application for today from John 10:1-18. Know Jesus voice. Pray for the Holy Spirit to make his voice distinct so I would know to ignore the voice of the enemy. The prince of lies is good at his craft. He knows what my deep fears and inadequacies are. He constantly whispers to tell me that I am who my past says I am.

The Good Shepherd lays down his life so that we can be new again. To prove the devil is what the Bible says he is, a liar. Be blessed today, be new today, but most of all be immune to the voice of the strangers and the thieves, they have nothing for you but death.

Peace. 

John Nine: God's Self disclosures can be uncomfortable.

A couple of years ago I got into an argument with some dear friends over the soverignty of God is suffering. They did not share my calvinistic veiw of the world so it quickly began to look like a show down. Fortunatly this friendship has always been fraught with mutual respect and humility. At one point I pointed to the man born blind in John chapter 9. The disciples ask if it was this man or his parents that had sinned, and if that sin brought on the blindness.

Jesus response was that neither was the case, but the man was born blind that God's glory could be revealed in him. When I brought up this verse I was accused of proof texting an accusation I take quite seriously as I never want to be seen as mishandling the word of God, (which I see as inerent and inspired and all the other crazy things fundamentalists say about the Bible). Here is why I think the accusation was erroneous bordering on an error of philisophical categories:

First off I am still reminded that we are exploring the book of John, the one about the self revealing God (the word became flesh and moved in the neiborhood [John 1:14 the message]). What John is telling us about is what God is like when he is self describibed by being present in The Lord Jesus Christ, this is not a book about the authors perceptions that need far more in the way of decoding than any other sort of biographical work. I say that to counter the argument that John is simply responding to the needs of his local spiritual community. He is the method of Gods revelation to the church.

What kind of God is revealed? He is a God that turns thinking on its head even if it would be seen as unpopular. Jesus says in essence that the man born blind is blind not because of guilt or innocents. That is not the purpose of the created order. God is a the judge of the world but the Gospel of John is not a long episode of Judge Judy with God on the bench. The created order including this blind man is meant to point ot God that we may call him glorious. "And the Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood. We have seen his Glory like that of the Father to the son." (rough paraphrase from the message mixed with NIV all from memory so who knows if that is the exact wording).

"Andrew," my friends object, " you take this to mean that all human suffering is ordained by God? Are you an unfeeling turd?" Okay friends dont ask the second part they might imply it. I will say that at the very least some suffering is ordained by God. He is pleased to crush his son Isaiah tells us. He allows for the sacking of Jerusalem by Babylon even though the conquor of the city would have been horrible if you read about ancient warfare. He raises up Pharoh to display his might is destroying that same Pharoh. He causes a man to be born blind so that this encounter can take place.

Our Lord suffered, and it was the moment his love was most gloriously displayed. I may be wrong in the premise that all human suffering is ordained by God but to say that none was is equally hard to prove. As for the members of the church and thier suffering, we should seek it. We should set aside comfort to go and make his name known. We should desire to follow His suffering as his call is always a call to our death (I am guessing Bonhoeffer is correct in this assesment).

As for those who disagree, what will be the meaning of your suffereing? Proof that God does not exsist and is there for even more meaningless? Proof  that God is  non-interventionist akin to the man who lets his neighbors house burn to prove a point about his respect for human freedom? I am not saying that his authorship of suffereing helps us sleep better at night, I am only submiting that his allowing it out of defernce to human freedom is no more morally exusable than anyother explination.

In the mean time I gladly bow in worship of this self revealing author of all things, uncaused cause who cares for man and crys along with him. Sola Deo Gloria

Where you there when the sun refused to shine.

It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. (Luke 23:44-46, ESV)
I wanted to take a moment out of my journey through the Gospel of St. John to recognize Ash Wednesday.  Today we begin the celebration of Lent. It is not something the scripture commands so I would not say it is a requirement of church life. I would say that it is a healthy practice. We are six weeks away from Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of The Lord Jesus after he conquers sin and death. The next 40 day are to be spent calling to mind our own sin and brokenness. The new life bestowed on us who are undeserving came at a tremendous cost. God in the flesh put on a cross and killed by the very people his death opens a door for. We demanded our savior’s blood and for it we are offered paradise. Yet I will remember today that the death of the savior was a day of mourning. Creation stood still and recognized their creator’s death. “Where you there when the sun refused to shine,” the old hymn asks. I was not, yet I am responsible and I am grateful. For in that moment the veil separating man from the Holy of Holies was torn and the threshold of heaven unlocked to wretch like me.
Oh God that I would never take you for granted, that I would cherish new life, that I would tell the world of your love.
Sola Christus!

John 7:37-39: Jesus Disrupts "Christmas."

There are two things about this particular section of John that caught my eye. The first is how Jesus steps in and disrupts a religious festival being practiced as it had been for as long as anyone could remember. He "pops in," on the feast of weeks. This is a festival to remember God's provision in the dessert a thousand years earlier at the time of Moses. The people would basically have a camping party in the city of Jerusalem living in temporary structures. At the end of every day there was a water rite that was performed to remember that when they had no water in the dessert with Moses, God provided water from the rock. Of course I am giving a brief description and meaning here, there is centuries of meaning that had come to be embedded into the feast of weeks much like Christian Christmas.

Christmas started out as the feast day celebrating the birth of Christ. The church has added to that celebration over time, for example adding advent to the front end. Advent has candles and feasts. Believers in Jesus practice charity, and gift giving to remember that Jesus is the greatest gift God could give, the gift of himself. Over years I have found that these ceremonial obligations have become equal to the religious implications of the day and have even surpassed them. It is the Job of the Church to call attention back to what the ultimate most satisfying part of Christmas is, Jesus Christ who has come to dwell with his people.

In the same way Jesus interrupts the pageantry of the feast of weeks to call attention to the only truly satisfying water, himself. He is ruining their Christmas by reminding them of what is really at stake. I had known about this passage since writing a paper about it in seminary but I never considered this portion of it. In chapter four Jesus introduces living water to the woman at the well. In chapter six he puts himself up above Moses by reminding them that the food Moses directed the people to in the dessert parishes, and in this chapter the two messages collide. Living water is again discussed and it is while Jesus changes the meaning behind a festival celebrating the Mosaic era of Hebrew history.

The second point of significance here is that the rivers of living water refer to the as of yet absent spirit within people. Later in the book Jesus points our that the Spirit convicts the world of righteousness and judgment. This "pneuma," mentioned in chapter three as the one that makes us born again has not even begun that work yet. At least that is how verse 39 paints it. This has implications. As of yet I would not pretend to know what they are, but as soon as I have a theory you will know oh faithful few reader who would stick with me this far down the column. In the mean time be blessed today!