Deep Creek Anglican Church Blog

As the Occupy Movement has swept across the U.S. and western Europe, I have found myself with a certain empathy.  Sure  - such protests will always attract some anarchists and rabble-rousers.  But, but ……. there is something deeply stirring the hearts and souls of many folk.

The rampant, poorly regulated capitalism of so many western nations, especially in the last two decades, has left in its wake genuine pain.  That should not surprise us.  I know experientially the pointy end of capitalism having worked in outposts of Wall Street for many years.  There is an adrenalin rush in ‘doing deals’, and doing bigger and bigger ones with larger and larger success fees!  To assume more broadly that an economic system, obsessed with profit and accumulation of personal wealth, will generate good and ethical outcomes for the whole of society is simply fanciful.

And of course it is not just the pointy end of capitalism that has led to such widespread malaise. Political parties and governments of supposedly more ‘social’ orientation have repeatedly failed the very underprivileged that they supposedly are seeking to protect.  How?  At the risk of gross over simplification, through massively irresponsible housing policies; through expenditure of public funds with pathetic cost control resulting in a small number of contractors becoming even richer and overall less resources available to assist those who are genuinely hurting and are disenfranchised.

There is real pain in the community.  There is real unsettledness.  You can here the cry from people’s hearts: “Something is wrong!”

And indeed there is.  And it is much, much deeper than simply the excesses of any particular economic system or power obsessed politicians.

Ben Witherington has just penned a post that I think simply ‘nails’ the root problem.  He writes:

“The root of the problem is not our lack of jobs. The root of the problem is not Wall Street. Those boys are just living out one form of the American Dream which produced the bumper sticker ‘the one who dies with the most toys wins’ or ‘I’m spending my grand children’s inheritance’. The root of the problem is the human heart, and the only solution is a heart transplant. The only solution is dying to that old Adamic self.

The only cure for narcissism is a real conversion. Not just a change of direction, or a change of a few ideas, a real conversion which allows one to give up the self-centeredness and actually love God and neighbor. And the interesting thing is, that when you actually do that, that little voice inside goading you into more selfish activities quiets down. Once you know you are a person of sacred worth whom God and others love, you don’t need to prove to yourself or others you are somebody big, someone of note.”

Read Witherington’s article – slowly – digest it, chew on it, and turn to the One who is the great rescuer and transformer of hearts that, outside of God’s transforming grace, are bent on self destruction.

Yesterday at our Sunday services we began a series on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians.  It is such a wonderful part of Scripture.  Late last year, I began a series of posts on Timothy Gombis’ The Drama of Ephesians: Participating in the Triumph of God.  See here, here, here and here (I didn’t finish the chapter reviews as Sheryl’s health began to seriously deteriorate).

Ephesians begins with such a magnificent declaration of praise:

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ

and then the Apostle Paul, as he unwraps some of these spiritual blessings, highlights election and predestination  - subjects so hotly debated down through the centuries of the Church:

⁴ For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love ⁵ He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will— ⁶ to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.

Gombis comments,

“The thrust of the “predestination” talk in Ephesians, then, has to do with shaping the identity of the people of God.  It is a hijacking, therefore, of the language of this passage to hear Paul commenting on the “who’s in, who’s out” game.   Some Christians treat passages that speak of God’s work of election and predestination in a static manner.  They envision God in eternity past choosing certain people from the massive pool of humanity to receive salvation and choosing certain others (or perhaps allowing them) to endure eternal destruction.  We are then stuck with the problem of a supposedly loving God choosing to send some people to eternal damnation while others, for no apparent reason, enjoy eternal life.  This sounds maddeningly arbitrary and unloving, leading to a host of theological and existential problems.

But this is not a proper understanding of the character of election.  Paul’s point here is that one of the wonderful gifts of salvation is the gift of a new history.  Just as in the rest of Scripture, “election” talk has to do with defining the identity and character of the people of God.  It does not have to do with parsing out the order of God’s decrees in eternity past.

Paul is meaning to affirm that those who are called to participate in and perform the gospel of Jesus Christ are those who have their origin in God’s heart and mind from all eternity.  God has planned and schemed to seek you out and capture you by his love and redemptive grace to be his people and his agents of the redemption of the world.”

What grace!!

During the month of January, at our Sunday 6pm gathering, we are featuring Tim Keller’s Reason for God, using the filmed conversations between Tim and a group of folk who have doubts and objections to Christianity.  Each conversation goes for about 20 minutes and then we take questions  - last night (‘What gives you the right to tell me how to live my life?‘) we had a stimulating 30 minute Q & A session, followed by an Aussie summer night BBQ.

This coming Sunday (16th Jan) the discussion topic is: ‘Why does God allow suffering?  Why is there so much evil in the world?‘

Speaking of Tim Keller books, on my growing summer reading list is Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just.  Scot McKnight, over at Jesus Creed has just posted a review of the book.  Scot references some other helpful resources and makes an observation that has increasingly resonated with me and troubled me over recent years:

“…if grasping grace inevitably leads to doing justice, one wonders why so many Christians, especially those who champion the “doctrines of grace,” have failed to do justice. Part of Keller’s answer to this conundrum is no doubt provided in his earlier book, Counterfeit Gods, [Deep Creek sermon series here] showing that money, sex, and power easily become idols obliterating a generous response to grace… Perhaps another reason is because Christians have not engaged in what Keller refers to as the “sustained reflection and circumspection” that leads to wise and just living, or maybe because it is so easy (and sadly so common) to have intellectual faith in God’s grace that fails to grip our hearts and lives.  This is particularly true in reference to the doctrine of justification. It is tragedy that Christian traditions committed to justification by grace through faith have often failed to exhibit equal passion for justice.”

I’m really enjoying Christ among the Dragons: Finding our way through cultural challenges by James Emery White.  In the chapter ‘The Mark of a Christian’, White writes:

“At its heart grace is getting what we don’t deserve, and not getting what we do.  It’s something we receive that we do not deserve.  The idea of God’s love coming to us free of charge, without strings attached, seems to go against every instinct within the human race.  The Buddhist Eightfold Path,  the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, Muslim obedience – they’re all ways of trying to earn approval.  Only Christianity contends that God’s love is unconditional.

This is not only the distinguishing love mark of the Christian, but it is what compels our love for each other.  Our love for one another is based on the realisation that our relationship with Christ is built on grace, and therefore our relationship with others should be as well.”

Music often has a profound impact on us.  Over the last twenty years or so, as we have witnessed and experienced significant suffering with our son, the hymn, ‘It is well with my soul‘, never ceases to stir our hearts and clear the tear ducts!  Horatio Spafford (1828-1888) composed these words in the aftermath of extreme suffering.

If you enjoyed the singing of Wintley Phipps on the previous post, then turn up the volume, get out the tissues and praise God for His strengthening presence in the midst of severe suffering:

In recent years I have assisted in lecturing in theology at Ridley Melbourne Mission & Ministry College.  In the ‘Doctrines of Grace and Eschatology’ unit, when I come to give three hours of lectures on ‘judgment’ I find myself each time going back over what Scripture says about the judgment of believers.

Paul in 2 Cor 5:10 and Rom 14:10, Paul states that we must all appear before the judgment (bema) seat  of God / Christ.  The picture is of the bema seat in ancient Corinth.  The ‘all’ certainly includes followers of Jesus.  It is clear that for the one trusting in Christ, the judgment is not one of life or death.  It will however certainly involve evaluation what we have done according to the light that has been given us and we will be rewarded accordingly.

But the question that often yields quite different answers is, ‘Will the believer’s sins (thought, word and deed) be displayed and then wiped clean based on the perfect work of Christ on the Cross?’

My study of Scripture has brought me to the same point as that expressed by Tim Challies in his post, Believers in Judgment.  Tim comments:

“Some Christians believe that in the judgment all of our evil deeds will be exposed—that before we receive our reward we will first have all we’ve said and done brought into the light (see 1 Corinthians 4:5). However, this must be balanced with passages such as Psalm 103:12 (“as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us”) and Micah 7:19 (“You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea”). It is my understanding, then, that our sins will not be exposed before others and that Christ will not speak of them in that day, for those sins have already been dealt with and have already been removed. Though Christ will dispense reward or withhold reward on the basis of what we’ve done or haven’t done, he will not bring those sinful deeds before all the world.”

There may well be some aspects of the Final Judgment that we cannot precisely determine from Scripture ahead of that Day.  But we do know with total confidence that for every person holding to Christ (present tense) we are covered by Christ’s righteousness and there is no condemnation before a holy God (Rom 8:1).  Praise God for such magnificent grace!

Does the impact of the Fall – its breadth and depth – sometimes hit you in the face?  I’m posting this from a chemotherapy ward, where my wife is undergoing treatment.  People of all ages are here – from teenagers through to seniors.  Suffering is etched on the faces of the sick as well as their loved ones.

But in the midst of this scene, there is much evidence of God’s common grace – the provision of the medical facilities and highly qualified staff; the availability of treatment regimes that, for some, significantly enhance their quality of life; the wonderful support of the caring nurses and doctors.

Tomorrow I’ll take our youngest son to hospital for an operation to allow him to continue to be fed through his stomach ‘peg.’  Early this week I spent two days visiting someone in a special medical unit, that cares for people struggling to cope with the pressures of daily life.  Again, those suffering spanned a broad age range.

Without Christ, is it any wonder that so many folk seek to dull the pain of living in this fallen world?  The tragedy is that so often the ‘escape pursuits’ so often increase the pain of daily living.

Praise God that there is healing in the atonement.   In God’s grace and wisdom, for some they will experience some respite from suffering in this life.  For all who are ‘in Christ’, healing will one day be comprehensive.  The New Heaven and New Earth is a future reality.

For sure, difficult to imagine in our current existence.  But as certain as the Lord Jesus came the first time, He will return and usher in a renewed and transformed cosmos.  Totally free from sin, disease, death.  A physical existence in the very presence of the Lord.  This is a certain hope for every follower of the Lord Jesus.  Praise God for this rock solid certain hope.

“The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” Ps 19:1

And the northern lights (Aurora Borealis) certainly do that.  A documentary, featuring Joanna Lumley, was shown on ABC TV at the end of November.  It was absolutely spectacular (and sometimes funny) and you can see a trailer here.  Magnificent photos of the aurora are here and here.

The  name aurora borealis derives from the name of the Roman goddess for dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for north wind, Boreas. Aurora is sometimes referred to as ‘the dance of the spirits.’

But all of creation has one source – the one and only God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Gen 1:1-3, Isa 42:5-9, John 1:1-4, Col 1:15-17, Heb 1:1-3, Rev 4:1-11).

As we observe the wonder of the cosmos (of which the aurora is but one of countless wonders), our hearts should fill with praise to our mighty Creator, the One who reminded Job of His awesome creative power and sovereignty (Job 38:1-21).

The wonder of grace is that this unimaginably powerful God took on human flesh and through Jesus’ death and resurrection, provided the means for the reconciliation of the estranged creation to its holy Creator (Col 1:15-23).

Only two more sleeps to the New Year (assuming you’re still awake at 12.00am on the 31st!).  At this time of any year, we often become somewhat reflective on the year nearly passed.  But 2010 marks the start of a new  decade so our reflections this year are likely to span the last decade.

I know I have contemplated a number of times in recent days the significant changes in my life since the beginning of the decade.  So many instances of the Lord leading, continuing His work of transformation (not a straight line!)  and escalating family health struggles that have required me on numerous occasions to ensure my theology of suffering is very practicable.

Reflections on the exodus were a key aspect of Israel’s spirituality.  And for each follower of the Lord Jesus, we will have our own  ’exodus event(s)’ that will serve to give us great assurance of God’s presence and grace when we are journeying through difficult times.  But I find it healthy not to stay too long in historical mode, but to press on and to look forward to the Lord Jesus’ return and the arrival of the New Heaven and New Earth.  That’s God’s trajectory and it is amazing grace of God that we can be on that same trajectory as we continue to trust in the Lord Jesus.

If you have interest in reflections on America over the last decade (and the changes have been huge) then check out these opinion pieces in The New York Times.

Christianity Today has put together its own Top Ten News Stories of both 2009 and also the decade here based on their assessment of “the events, people, and debates of the past year that have shaped, or will significantly shape, evangelical life, thought, or mission.”