Gadfly's Muse

I KNOW My Redeemer Liveth!

[image: Glorious, 2007, JAVanDevender]

Happy Easter !!!!!  He is Risen!!!

And One More Thing.... The Return of the Grump!

[Image: Driftwood, 2010, JA VanDevender]

News this morning is of yet another tax, this time on gasoline, that has cleared the Senate and is bound for the anxiously awaiting pen of our distinguished governor.  Just this past week we received notice that the county is planning to assess non-profits (read Churches) a fee of about $1700 per acre covered in non-permeable surfaces.  This is, of course, in political double-speak, not really a tax, because, after all, non-profits are tax exempt.  No.. of course not, they would never impose a tax on us.  But a "fee" for the privilege of having a building and a parking lot on property that we nominally possesses by virtue of having paid for it... no, you see, this is only right and fair.  After all... if we didn't have those covered areas then the water would not "run off" into the drainage ditch that runs by our property and from thence into the Severn Run creek and from thence into the Severn River and ultimately into the Chesapeake Bay....  as it has been doing for about as long as history has been recorded.

What will this money be used for?  It's anyone's guess.  Will the tax on gasoline solve the highway infrastructure problems in this state?  Oh, probably some miniscule percentage will actually find its way into concrete, after the usual skimming has been done.  Remember the sell job we heard for voting to allow gambling casinos in the state.  Remember what they said would happen?  Why, it would bring in all kinds of money to solve the problems of public education.  We want our kids to have schools don't we?  Well, people are flocking to the casinos, so why is another tax increase in the works to pay for the cost of public education?  Is it possible that old "Mack the Knife" is back in town?

Remember the Boston Tea Party?  Perhaps a few of us still do.  That kind of historical fact is not politically correct any more and therefore it is not given very much play in those public schools that supposedly are the beneficiaries of taxes.  Can you imagine what one of those 1775 Boston hooligans would say about the confiscatory tax rates we are blithely and passively swallowing today?

Has anyone figured out yet that I just finished doing my calculations for my income tax return?  

Folks, we properly get outraged when some thug steps forth from the dark and demands our wallet or our purse with a gun in his hand.  Why do we just shrug and get on with life when politicians do it with the threat of a warrant, or a tax lien, or a foreclosure?  

Does anyone seriously believe that the money we pay in taxes is primarily being spent wisely, frugally and with caution?  The sheer idea of belt-tightening in political circles is anathema to those who are constantly passing and signing the laws and are thereby demanding that we live on less so that we can pay them more.

The entire mess simply stinks... to high heaven... yet we simply "drift" along... paying little attention to those other economies who have already been stranded on the shore and are facing absolute, catastrophic bankruptcy.

When are we simply going to say "enough" and mean it.

Here endeth the rant... for a time.

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Sadness & Hope

[Image: Sadness & Hope, 2007, JAVanDevender]

 

Luke 23:34 (NKJV)

³⁴ Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."

Good Friday is not, in my mind, a day for bright colors... but, importantly, neither is it a day when color should be absent.

When we "survey the wondrous cross" there should and must be a curious mixture of emotions springing up in our breasts.  Like the photograph, somethings there should be in sharp detail, in high relief.  Somethings should be blurred, hard to make out, lacking clarity, as with the flowers' center.

Of course this is only from our perspective... it is certainly not the perspective of Jesus either when He was there or now when He looks back upon it.

The "darkness" of the cross is the darkness of sin.  Anselm said that "He has not properly weighed the depth of sin who has not properly weighed the depth of the cross" or something to that effect.  The ugliness of the cross is the depravity of man... the hideous perversion of that which God created good but man has not only tarnished but defiled.  Man's sinful preoccupation is destruction.  Even as man sets out to "improve" himself or the world about him, what he does is superimpose the sinful desires of his heart on the effort... every journey, every initiative, undertaken apart from Christ, is not only an exercise in futility it is arrogant rebellion, no matter how seemingly "sincere" a facade is erected over it.

Looking at the cross one should, and one must, see that all about it is darkness.  Such was the day itself when darkness descended on the earth, when God's wrath falling on His Son was echoed by the tokens of God's wrath in flashing lightning and booming thunder.  No wonder the fierce soldiers were cowed.  No wonder the battle hardened centurion turned his eyes to heaven and trembled.  Darkness is the central tone, the pervasive mood, of the cross.  But the darkness is not completely victorious.  There is color there... muted yes... but present... and it is the color that gives us hope in the midst of darkness.

How can a man look down upon the ones who had just driven the nails into his hands and feet and have pity on them?  How can a man forgive those who not only caused him this agony but seemingly delighted in doing it?  How can a man love those who are unloveable?  How can a man say "Father... forgive them... they know not what they do?"  There is color.  There is unexplainable compassion.  There is beauty amidst the ashes.

How could such a man's request not be granted?  How could God the Father deny His Son such a request.  Oh how I wish I knew now what constituted the remaining days lived by those soldiers.  What a story they must have told at some point.  How dreadfully they must have wept when the Holy Spirit finally revealed to them the enormity of what they had done.  Bitter tears in the face of enveloping joy... in the awakening of astonished hope... that their sins were forgiven... even this one.

What a holy, holy, holy image.  What a Savior!  Bow your head and worship with me... at the cross.

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Equality? Yes and No (Facebook and those equal signs)

[Image: Martyrs Cliff, 2007, JAVanDevender]

About 200 years ago, there were no trees on this cliff.  It was a sheer drop.  The Korean government decided to stamp out the Christian influence in their country and they came to this site, took the foreign missionaires who were there and their disciples and tossed them over the edge.  This memorial stands in remembrance of the event and the names of each martyr is engraved on a marble wall at the top.

I have been asked to comment on the current Facebook discussion and controversy.  People are being asked to support the overthrow of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) by posting "equal signs" on their cover.  Lots of people are doing it, some of whom are Christians, and some Christians are saying they're confused.  What's a pastor to do?  This is an "additional" blog today addressing that issue.  I will only give an overview of what I believe is the Christian view of this controversy.  I recognize other Christians, some sincere, will say that there is more than one Christian view.  I disagree but that is what this blog is all about.

The question has to be thought of at two levels.  First, Christians must come to grips with a basic truth.  The first Law is not the Constitution of the United States of America.  The first Law which trumps all other laws made my man, is God's Law and that must be firmly maintained.  Even if it means that we get thrown over the cliff, metaphorically or otherwise, as a result.  Second, we Christians must understand that before this Law, we are all equal.  We agree that everyone should be treated equally by the law.  Before God's Law as the supreme Law we are all equal and we are all equally guilty.  The committed, unrepentant homosexual is guilty of sin before the law of God.  The committed, unrepentant heterosexual adulterer is guilty before the law of God.   There  is no difference between them... none whatsoever.  It does not matter if the homosexual is genetically inclined to that sexual preference... nor whether the pedophile is culturally conditioned to his or her desire for romance with a child... or whether the practicing libertine who is having sex encounters with multiple partners is convinced that sexual conventions are arbitrary and archaic carryovers from an ancient set of prudes. They... we.... are all equally guilty and all equally deserving of God's wrath as a result.

It does not matter why such things appeal to us.  What matter is "What hath God said" about these things.  If God has declared sexual sins to be sinful then such they are:  4000 years ago, 2000 years ago or last week.  He has not changed.  Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount, applied the law of God far more stringently than Moses.  He got to the heart of the issue for it is a matter of the heart that is at stake.  No man, no court of the United States of America and certainly no structural church has the right to redefine sin.  Any nation that declares that it is "One Nation Under God", if it is to avoid hypocrisy, must acknowledge that being "under God" means being subject to His prior claim of judgment.  

Christians should be clear.  Sin is sin, no matter how it is encountered.  We deal with sin, any sin, in exactly the same way that Jesus did.  By offering the Gospel which is for forgiveness of sins, by claiming the power of the Holy Spirit such that sin no longer has dominion over us, and then heeding Jesus' command to "go and sin no more."  This we profess is the pathway to holiness and joy and that the Christian who embarks upon it will discover why Christ's burden is easy and His load is light.

Third:  Christians must stand strong with regard to what they should understand as the government's rights and responsibilities at all times and most specifically with regard to this issue.  Under this heading we must first acknowledge that government has absolutely no right to define marriage one way or the other.  Government has the right to tax and regulate society.  Under these rights it has to make laws that apply to such things as according certain advantages to various cultural institutions.  It has the right to judge such things as probate issues and rights of inheritance where such things are disputed.  

Government therefore can give tax breaks to whom it wants and deny them to others.  If the government chooses to let one set of human beings living together, sharing expenses and income, etc. be taxed at a different rate than those same human beings living apart... so be it.  The government has absolutely no right to say that there is a moral equivalency between homosexual couples doing such a thing and a married heterosexual couple.  The government has absolutely no right to take it upon itself to "instruct" children in public schools that there is equivalent virtue in homosexual and heterosexual relations.  

Christians must stand firm.  No matter what the government does, we will not give up God's Word or His promises.  We are to love sinners and pray for their repentance... no matter what their sin.  We do not really expect the government of a secular nation, such as this one, to embrace everything we believe, though we loudly proclaim that they should.  We continually point to the Christ to whom All Authority in Heaven and on Earth have been given and we say "Kiss the Son lest He be angry".  This country is even now seeing the truth of Romans 1 being made manifest.  

There is indeed equality before the law... we are all equally guilty and all equally called to repentance.  There is no equality between sin and righteousness.   Marriage has been defined by God in Christ.  There is no question about Ephesians 5 and its clear teaching that a marriage sets up a relation between the husband and the wife which is transcendently significant and is therefore above and beyond their individual predilections and preferences.  Submission to God means submission to His plans for their marriage.  This can be difficult for a husband and a wife.  It is impossible for a homosexual union.

There is no equality where God has not established it as so.  Christian, strenthen your weak knees and stop cowering before the fury of the crowd.  Others have bled and died to preserve the heritage that you have received.  Hang in there... God always wins in these things... though it may take a while and it may not be pleasant in the interim.

There's Joy Ahead....

[image: God Rays, 2013, DCJohanson]

Photo permission by David C. Johanson, Seattle, Wa.

...who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:2).

Look carefully at this fine capture and focus on the center of the converging rays.  If you blur your eyes a bit a cross formed by the intersecting branches appears.  Imagine standing there an gazing at it for as long as the Sun remained close to this position.  What impressions would have run through your mind?

Today is Maundy Thursday... we remember Jesus sitting down with His disciples to eat the passover lamb.  Consider him there, looking at his beloved disciples, one of whom would betray him.   Imagine the scene with this image, the cross with the back lighting streaming around it, mentally before him as back ground to the dinner table.  What an emotionally charged atmosphere that must have been.  The disciples, dimly aware that something was going on.  Their Lord, knowing that unimaginable horror was in the offing, knowing that He would face it alone, that all these beloved friends would take to their heels leaving Him under the wrath of man and of God all by Himself.  But, beyond the horror... on the other side of the darkness and shadow, there was light... joy.  The joy of fulfilled mission... the joy of His Father's embrace... the joy of fellowship with these who were eternally His... the joy of seeing Abraham and Moses and David and Elijah shouting in delight as their faith is vindicated and God's promises to them fulfilled... the joy of opening the gates of Heaven to those thousands of millions who would hear the Gospel and through the comorting power of the Holy Spirit, believe what they heard and be sealed to His Kingdom forever.

It was for joy that He endured the cross... it was for the over-arching victory that was to be achieved there.  It made it all worth while for Him and it makes it holy and precious to us.

Look again at the image... focus on it ... enter into it.  Consider Christ.  Consider the Supper.  Think of that Holy Moment that it embodies.  Let your heart melt as your gaze places you along side of your Lord seeing what He saw and recognize that only the deepest kind of love... the incomprehensible power of binding affection... can fully account for His action.  His joy lay ahead of Him... a joy that would be complete only if you share it with Him.

That is what the supper is all about.... prepare for it... humble yourself before His love... and come... draw near and hear His words... "This is my body... broken for you."

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Just Around The Corner....

Salvation and Judgment

Salvation and Judgment

[Image:Living Stream, 2007, JAVanDevender]

Isaiah 30:25 (NKJV)

²⁵ There will be on every high mountain, And on every high hill, Rivers and streams of waters, In the day of the great slaughter, When the towers fall.  

You can hear it before you can see it.  The quiet mountain air stills the world and the creatures of the wood go about their business without comment.  That path winds upward, at no great angle, so the walking is easy and it is easy to simply enter into the spirit of the place.  The cliffs, filled with bursting trees and underbrush press close on either side in unbroken succession, but the sound of rushing water, splashing against rocks, cascading in rivulets, tinkles in the ear.  It's there, somewhere just ahead.  And finally there it is.  Not very majestic... not extremely impressive.. having an undestated beauty that has to be contemplated to appreciate.  

It may not be a river, it's certainly not Niagra Falls, but it is constant and if you look carefully you notice that it has carved the rock cliff to fit its image.  It is life, true life, and it flows irrepressibly onward, and the solid rock gives way under it.  It is salvation and judgment, all at once.

Isaiah (above) juxtaposes the idea beautifully.  God's salvation sweeps in on His people as rivers and streams of water flooding down from every high hill, yet it is a day of great slaughter, with towers falling, on those who are God's enemies, those who oppress and abuse His people, those who do not heed the claims of God on their lives.  So it was... so it is .... so it shall be until all is accomplished and the last cry "It is FINISHED" has finally been sung by the angels in chorus.

So it is with the Gospel.  It is the "aroma of life" and the "smell of death."  As the living stream of water brings death to the rock over which it flows, so the Gospel, the fact of the life which has flooded into our world through the shared death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, is understated, quiet, hidden from our eyes until we turn a corner and "see" it.  It does not necessarily impress us on first encounter.  It may not be Niagra falls but for those who pause and consider, there are layers of meaning that simply cannot be fully comprehended by finite minds.

This gospel divides even as it unifies.  This gospel separates the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares, even as it proclaims complete reconciliation between God and men and between men and other men.  It is a two edged sword penetrating to the very bone and marrow.  It brings peace and the promise of terror.  It refuses to compromise with our wills ... it makes no allowance for anything but complete submission... it sounds so terribly tyrannical to those who wish to excuse themselves and cling to their own autonomy.  But it is life and eternity, joy and beauty, refreshing and purity to those who give themselves to it.

As we "survey the wondrous cross" this week we must, of necessity, see it in terms of our salvation.  It stands there on that lonely hill, demonstrating and fulfilling God's love for fallen sinners.  It is the outpouring of the streams of forgiveness flooding down that lonely hill and bringing purity to all for whom Christ's blood overflows.

But, that same cross, stands in lonely judgment, carving away all the solid foundation on which those who deny it stand.  Peter's words come to mind: "God has made this Jesus, whom YOU CRUCIFIED both Lord and Christ."  The cross is salvation and judgment, life and death, heaven and hell.

It's impact on our soul depends on what we value - do we love what it brings or do we regret the path that it cuts through our life and our world.

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[Image: Mountain Delight, 2007, JAVanDevender]

Wildflowers, South Mountain Area, SK.

Ephesians 2:11–13 (NKJV)

¹¹ Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— ¹² that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

There are very good reasons for associating Easter with flowers and it has been so for ages.  There is something so transcendentally metaphorical about the bursting buds, the blossoming beauty, of flowers reaching out into the remaining cool freshness of departing winter, that "life from death"; "new life"; "joy"; "contentment"; etc. cannot help but be implied.  It is not only beautiful but it is so completely comprehensive.  The flowers invite the awakening bees, the budding leaves hide the nests of hatchlings in their nest, and all God's creatures stir with new energy.  Spring is God's bounty and the downpayment on an eternal Sabbath that is the heritage of His saints.

Lent has seemingly "flown by" this year.  In just a couple of days we will gather around the table for our Maundy Thursday memorial Lord's Supper, then hard on will be Good Friday with its solemn contemplation of the cross, .... and then.... then comes Easter and the thrill of the resurrection and the bursting forth of the Lily of the Valley... the Bright Morning Star... the Glory of the Risen Son.  And even now it seems as if all nature is preparing to celebrate.  The skies are blue.. the air is fresh and cool.  We must prepare.  We must align ourselves with His creation.  We must not sell it short.  He is risen!

"But NOW" is perhaps one of the most important, striking and deep phrases in all of Scripture.  With stark contrast the Gospel breaks forth in those words.  "But!"  - in spite of what you may have thought... in contradiction to all that man may have considered... contrary to every previous inclination... "NOW!" - in this moment, in this new situation, from this point forth, as opposed to every other age... things have changed.

Where once we Gentiles were in the dark... strangers to His promises... without hope in the world... abiding in and loving the world that Satan held in the tight bonds of lies and deceptions... NOW Christ has arisen.  NOW there is a uniting of His creation, of man as His special work, in the New Adam who has reconciled men with God and men with men.  NOW we are no longer alone... NOW we are bound in covenant with God through the victory Christ has won over sin and death.  NOW we live in a new age that is Jesus Christ ruling and reigning, directing the progress of history and specifically, particularly preserving and propagating His Church, His gathered saints, as He moves inexorably toward that great and complete Easter morning where the Son will shine eternally as He tabernacles with His people forever.

Rejoice you saints... burst out in bloom... let the brightness of the season be seen in your face.  Christ is risen!

 

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Explain this!

[Image:Dolmen Park, 2007, JAVanDevender}

Job 37:7 (NKJV)

⁷ He seals the hand of every man, That all men may know His work.  

Calvin, J. (1997). Institutes of the Christian religion.

...there exists in the human minds and indeed by natural instinct, some sense of Deity, 

(Plutarch, Epicurean Colophon)

“If you go round the world, you may find cities without walls, or literature, or kings, or houses, or wealth, or money, without gymnasia or theaters. But no one ever saw a city without temples and gods, one which does not have recourse to prayers or oaths or oracles, which does not offer sacrifice to obtain blessings, or celebrate rites to avert evil.”  

Korea hosts the largest number of "Dolmen" (Koreans calls them "Goindol") in the world.  Some of them date back to 6000 BC.  The oldest is in Europe and it dates back to somewhere around 8000 BC.  What are they?  Well, descriptively they are large flat rocks that are supported by three or more smaller rocks and they are among the earliest artifacts of human society. [By that I mean a collective cultural signficiance as opposed to individual art]. They may be fairly tall or fairly short, but they evidence the same intentionality.  While no one knows absolutely what was their purpose, there is general agreement that they have something to do with the dead and that they have some kind of 'spiritual' / 'religious' focus.  They are generally not believed to be "tombs" as such or burial markers but human bones have been found around them.  (I wonder if human sacrifice might have been involved).

Standing and gazing at such an object, I could not help but be drawn into the mystery of what must have been moving those ancient people to do this work.  Lifting that rock would not be easy today with all our modern tools.  Back then it had to take significant effort by multiple human backs and some degree of organization and oversight.  Why did they gather here and do this?  In this particular park there were dozens of these things.  This must have been 'holy ground' of some sort.  What moved these people to think that this was important to do?  

What I think it proves is this.  As long as man has been man, man has been  religious.

Man, of all creatures, is essentially a religious being.  As Calvin said above and as Plutarch observed centuries ago, there is within man a movement of his soul such that he is inclined to worship.  Left to his own devices, apart from any other instruction, he will naturally be disposed to interpret this world in which he lives, in terms of forces, beings and categories that he cannot see.  Man will see purpose and intent in nature no matter how often modern skeptics say that it is all a matter of chance.  Man has to overcome his own genetic predisposition otherwise to claim that no god exists.  Man has to deceive himself to consider that all that "is" is confined to the world of the senses.  Man longs to believe even when his life, his experience, his frustration so shapes his cynicism that he refuses to do so.

As long as there has been man, there has been religion.  That's a fact, at least as far as I can see it.

Elihu (the quote above, from Job) certainly was not stranger to this fact.  The book of Job may be the earliest Scriptural text and what do we find in it?  Elihu saying that the evidences of God's order in creation are so self-evident that every man's hand is "sealed" such that "all" will know His work.  

For all the vaunted "objectivity" of modern materialism; for all the arrogant denials of "meta-narratives" which explain man's history or the cosmos; for all of that, what we find is that the "fact" that man is and has always been religious, is the most difficult for those folks to explain.  

Oh, I am aware of their efforts.  I have read their sociological, "survival of the fittest", explanations. I have closely surveyed their logical development of those themes, of how the growth of religion conduced to social unity, that it was a means to power and of its exercise, and that, as a social construct it enabled the distribution of labor and the consequent ability of man to transcend his environment and dominate creatures who would have otherwise had him for lunch.  I am familiar with those arguments.

And yet, they are not only unconvincing, they don't even meet their own professed standard.  If "Occam's razor" (the "simplest" explanation that answers all the data, is the best) is applied one can readily see that the datum, the fact, that man from the earliest times has demonstrated a religious nature, is best explained by the idea that "religion" is necessary to properly understand the world as it is.  For man to prosper, he must be religious, because man, created in the image of God, can never escape the residual features of that image.  He has to look for God because in racial memory, he knows, that God is "out there."

And there is the conundrum that all those skeptics have to face.  They can kick against the goads all they want.  But there it is.  Explain that!

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We're All In This Together....

[Image: roofs, 2007, JAVanDevender], Seoul, SK - View from roof top garden.

⁸ To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, ⁹ and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;..... Ephesians 3:8–9 (NKJV)

Each man's death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee. [John Donne]

Like an interlocking puzzle the houses join together, separated by narrow streets and alleys wide enough for small people and small cars, but not Texas size by any stretch of the imagination.  Ground space is precious in a small country with an inordinately large proportion of mountains/sheer cliffs, etc.  What ever is suitable for building is also, usually, suitable for growing vegetables and other food stuff, so it is not unusual to see high-rise apartments shooting up in the midst of cultivated fields.  There is no question of spacious privacy... one must recognize the close quarters, adapt to it and give allowance for whatever sense of pressure that evokes in our spirit.

My mom used to say about city houses, which in Mississippi were not packed nearly as close as these homes, that she just "wouldn't live in one!"  When pressed for a reason she would say "There's not enough room to skin a cat without getting fur on the neighbor's window."  I have never seen my mom skin a cat but you get the idea.

Looking at those rooftops does remind me that such is life on this planet.  We Americans prize our individuality and sense of separation.  To be a "face in the crowd" is a bit repugnant to us.  This is somewhat genetic.  When our country was young and was filled with lonely wildernesses and spacious, virtually uninhabited plains, its very character did not appeal to the social minded but to the loners.  It was those Emersonian types who delighted in solitude who found their home on the pine ridges of Tennessee or the stark plateaus of the high-plains.  "Give me room, lots of room... don't fence me in" sang the mythical singing cowboy and it reflects much of what was once a uniquely American sensibility.

However much I am myself inclined to that very way of thinking, I have to admit that John Donne represents a more Biblical picture of humanity than this proud American individualism.  Population growth on this planet is forcing a lot of re-evaluation across the board on many things.  Americans are being confronted to the "nearness" of others, both through the internet and through physical proximity.  Perhaps this is one way God is forcing His Church to re-evaluate not only her mission but her theology.

All too easily we American Christians read the Scriptures through American "individualistic" lenses.  We take passages such as John 3:16 and we interpret them in terms of God's love for His world as God's love for individuals, as individuals, in His world.  We rejoice in His direct salvation for us, as an individual, and we envision our lives as "walking with Jesus" in the "garden, alone... while the dew is still on the roses."  We do not recognize how often, not always, but often, this can lead to idolatry.  We do not see the peril of thinking about God as being there to save "me", that I am the focus of His affections, that all of God's world revolves around His love for ME!  This individualistic trap can be deadly because it places a huge barrier to our understanding of the Kingdom of God, His purposes in creation and the sheer, wonder of God's saving work in Jesus Christ.

The emphasis in Scripture is of God's people, in social community (fellowship), existing and understanding themselves in organic relation  to each other with Christ as their head (Eph. 2:19-22).  Furthermore, to know Christ in His fullness, or better, to grow in our knowledge of Christ in His fulness, is a corporate activity.  We simply cut ourselves off at the knees when we seek, like flagellating monks in some darkened monastery cell, to grow in Christ in "splendid isolation."  It can't be done.  That knowledge of Christ that we gain in such a fashion is a monstrous caricature of Him because we are not receiving the ministry of grace through fellowship.  We are not functioning as an arm or a toe or even a fingernail in the larger body and hence we are not receiving the nourishment, the life, the pulsing vitality that is present in the "body".  To know Christ is to know Him in and through His Kingdom (which is His visible Church) as that Kingdom, growing on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles (Scripture) is providentially ordered and ruled and guided by His Spirit.

"Fellowship" is not identical with coffee and donuts and trivial conversation.  "Fellowship" is the intense reality of family, of mutual submission, of loving forebearance, of integrated reality.  It is a blessing and a duty.  It is a work and a fruit.  It is a calling and a resting place.  It is Christ, present on earth, manifesting His reality and signifying that there is a God in this world and that He is calling men everywhere to repent and "kiss the son" lest  He be angry.

Fellowship is a miracle.  It is the miracle of realizing that, as God's children, we are all in this together, and we had better, as with the Koreans, adapt our lives to that reality so as to discover, with amazement, how sweet it truly is.

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Hope for Peace

[Image: Sunset on the DMZ, 2007, JAVanDevender]

DMZ (the border between North and South Korea) Overlook, North of Seoul, SK.

Isaiah 57:19–21 

¹⁹ “.... Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,” Says the Lord, “And I will heal him.”

²⁰ But the wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. ²¹ “There is no peace,” Says my God, “for the wicked.”  

The current lunatic governing North Korea has recently torn up the armistice that has determined the war-time relations of the two Koreas.  The state of war never actually ceased... both sides simply agreed to stop fighting for however long the armistice was in place.   It appears, technically, that the North Korean action means that the war is back "on" and that either side could take offensive action at any moment without violating international law.  Peace?  Peace?  There is no peace!

I believe that this old world, in general, is tired of fighting.  It is only the lunatics that keep it going wherever it is currently showing up.  I know the North Korean people don't want war... they would much rather have food, electricity, a good night's sleep without fear.  The Middle East?  Africa?  The Balkans?  I think it is the same.  The media (for whatever that is worth) says 70,000 people have died in Syria since the so-called Arab Spring got underway.  I am sympathetic to the original rebel complaints.  Assad could have taken a different tack and he would probably be stronger now than ever.  But make no mistake, what is going on among those rebels now is not a vision for a "happy" Syria.  It will be a lot worse after Assad falls, at least for a while, as the various rebel factions stop fighting the government forces and turn on each other.  Peace?  Peace? There is no peace!

War is the thermometer that gauges the degree of wickedness in the world.  War is always rooted in wickedness, one way or another.  That doesn't mean each side shares equally in it but it's never completely absent from both sides either.  There is only one way to deal with wickedness in such a way as to strike at its root and that is through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Wickedness has to be punished... yes and amen.  Wars have to be fought for righteous causes,... yea and verily.  But punishing wickedness and fighting righteous wars do not, and will not ever, strike at the root of wickedness.  Executing a murderer will not prevent (absolutely) other murders.  Hanging a tyrant by his heels in the city square (Mussolini) will not guarantee that a worse tyrant will not take his place.  

There is only one hope for peace, in this world and in our own lives, and that is the hope that is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is not an individual hope, not essentially, though it certainly brings hope individually.  It is, first, foremost and forever, a social hope.  The Kingdom of Jesus Christ is "righterousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Rom. 14:17)  Those things are all related (righteousness is peace and joy) and they are all intended to be understood, fundamentally, as communal / social.  

It is the Gospel which breaks down the walls of enmity between those born Jews and those born Gentiles and creates a new common humanity among them.  It is the gospel and the gospel alone which can break down the walls of enmity between those born Muslim and those born Israelite.  It is the gospel and the gospel alone that can heal the enmity that exists in our inner cities and produces blood in our streets.  If there is any hope for reconciliation between the two Koreas, it will be found in the shared gospel that fills the hearts of many on both sides of that border.

Don't tell me that it is a pipe dream to long for such things... that there will always be wars and rumors of wars and that Christians are supposed to just hunker down and try to survive until the Lord returns.  There is no question that the efficacy of the Gospel is God's doing and not ours.  But obedience to the Gospel is ours to fulfill.  When Christ wondered if when He returns He will find any who will be faithful to service, He is talking about those who will not be intimidated by the 'impossibility" of the task but will be zealously inspired for the beauty of the Kingdom's perfection.  

God will give the wicked no 'rest.'   They will be continually at war with themselves, in themselves and with each other.  But God's people can bring healing where none else can offer it.  It is our business to hope for peace, by offering peace, and by facilitating peace.  It can be as local as our immediate family... or church... or neighborhood... or community.  It can also be as wide as the nation itself.  Doing good works in the name of Christ, for the honor of Christ, and in Christ's name and in no other, is working for peace and we have the promise of our Lord Himself that not one such effort will fail to receive its reward.

God denies peace to the wicked on His left hand, in the Isaiah passage quoted above, but at the same exact moment He offers it to those who, no matter how far off and how much of their life has been wicked, are pursuing wickedness no longer.  To those who embrace the Gospel and the peace that it offers, they are the heirs of peace and the servants of peace.  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

 

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Background on the 1953 armistice that North Korea has scrapped - Globe and Mail