Amongst the Christmas gifts I received is a book by Michael Horton, Christless Christianity. In it Horton presents a hard-hitting analysis of churches in America, arguing that many present a faith that is ‘trivial, sentimental, affirming and irrelevant.’ A preponderance of churches, he says, are presenting a message of ‘moralism, personal comfort, self-help, self-improvement, and individualistic religion, trivializing God, making him a means to our selfish ends.’
SUPERFICIALITY ABOUNDS
Horton quotes the response of the late John Stott in 2006 when he was asked his view on the state of evangelicalism: “Growth without depth”.
How different this is from Jesus’ commission: ‘Go and make disciples…, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you’ (Matthew 28:19f). In Colossians 1:28, Paul says he was committed ‘to teaching and warning everyone so that they become mature in Christ’. Being well grounded in the faith not only draws us into a richer, more trusting relationship with God, but also impacts our attitudes and relationships – something others discern.
Writing in The New York Times back in April, 2011, David Brooks observed: Rigorous theology delves into mysteries in ways that are beyond most of us. For example, in her essay, “Creed or Chaos,” Dorothy Sayers argues that Christianity’s advantage is that it gives value to evil and suffering. Christianity asserts that “perfection is attained through the active and positive effort to wrench real good out of a real evil.” This is a complicated thought most of us could not come up with (let alone unpack) outside of a rigorous theological tradition…
So, where do we begin? As we start a New Year, I plan to identify some key teachings we find in the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican Church. No, this will not be a doctrine series but rather reasons and illustrations of why we need God’s truth and love.
What then has God done? He has revealed himself, for Christianity is a supernatural faith. Its truths cannot simply be found by our observations of the world around us, or by merely applying our mind or conscience. We need not only God’s actions but also his explanation of what he has done. This revelation, the Thirty-Nine Articles tell us, is to be found in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible (Article VI). Indeed, Article XX says that the Bible as a whole is ‘God’s Word written’. 2 Peter 1:19-21 sets out the grounds for this truth.
SUPERNATURAL FAITH
What then should we do? Read. We come to understand the revelation the Bible brings us by reading it, looking for the plain meaning of ‘text in context’, and by making deductions from the statements it makes. There is nothing surprising in the fact that God expects us to use the minds he has given us. In fact, it would be most surprising if God, having given us minds, would expect us to ignore them when it comes to reading and understanding his revelation.
And pray. Our problem, more often than we care to admit, is accepting the truth we find revealed in the Scriptures. So, we need to pray. We need to ask God that his Spirit, who caused the Scriptures to be written (2 Peter 1:21), will help us understand the meaning of the Bible with our minds, and to feel the impact of its truth upon our hearts.
God’s promise. The Bible is where we learn of God’s salvation. When we think about it, we see why this is most appropriate, for salvation comes to us as a promise. It is a promise that is verbally expressed in the context of the explanation of God’s acts in history. As Article VII puts it, Both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to Mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and Man, being both God and Man.God offers men and women, by way of promise, the gift of salvation in and through Jesus Christ.
Jean Paul Sartre, the French existentialist, once said, That God does not exist, I cannot deny. That my whole being cries out for God I cannot forget.’ The great news is that God not only exists but has, in fact, stepped into our world and revealed himself.
In recent years ‘new atheists’ such as Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens have dismissed the miracles of the New Testament as fabrications. And when we think about it, to discredit the New Testament miracles is to discredit, for example, the signs of John’s Gospel and their witness to the uniqueness of Jesus as the Son of God, God in the flesh.
Our approach to the miracles depends on our presupposition. If we believe – and it is a belief – that everything about us is here by chance, then it is unlikely we will accept the occurrence of miracles. If, on the other hand we believe that there is a creator God behind our vast, complex universe, then it is consistent that God, if he chooses, can suspend the natural order of observable laws momentarily for a particular purpose.
Read – John 11:17-27
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
Reflect – Death is the ultimate irony, the absurd reality of life. Unless Jesus was deceiving Martha that day, he is only person who can do anything about it.
John has been telling us that the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem had attempted to stone Jesus for his apparent blasphemy (John 10:31). Leaving the city he travelled east of the Jordan. There he learned that his friend Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary, was dying in the village of Bethany, near Jerusalem.
Hearing that Lazarus had died, and against the advice of his disciples who feared the Jewish leaders, Jesus returned to Bethany where he was met by Martha. Talking with her he made the amazing assertion: I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
He didn’t say, ‘I promise resurrection and life;’ or ‘I procure’ or ‘I bring’, but ‘I am.’ Unless he is one with God his words are nothing but blasphemy. C.S. Lewis commented that Jesus was a liar, a lunatic or telling the truth. Jesus’ own resurrection was the event that changed the lives of the disciples and gave them a joy and a confidence that he is all that he claimed to be. It was their courageous witness, empowered by the Spirit of Jesus that changed the world.
The witness of the New Testament, the evidence of history, the existence of the Christian church all point to the conclusion that Jesus’ words are the truth. As he asked Martha that day, so he would ask you and me today, “Do you believe this?” And, if you do believe this, how will it affect your conversations with work colleagues, friends and family this Easter?
Prayer– Almighty God, you have conquered death through your dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ and have opened to us the gate of everlasting life: grant us by your grace to set our mind on things above, so that by your continual help our whole life may be transformed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit in everlasting glory. Amen. (BCP, Easter Day)
All too frequently we have been reminded of the fragility of life – through the actions of political power play by Russia over Crimea and the shooting down of a passenger airliner in Ukraine; there have been the actions of religious fanaticism at the hands of ISIS in Iraq and Syria; and the abduction of teenage school girls in Nigeria (some two hundred and nineteen of whom are still missing) at the hands of Boko Haram; and the lone-wolf Islamicist action in Sydney this month.
Our world. In 1932, John Buchan (created Lord Tweedsmuir in the year he was appointed Governor-General of Canada) wrote a perceptive book entitled, A Prince of the Captivity. As the narrative develops Buchan identifies the political and economic complexities of Britain and Europe in the aftermath of the First World War. At one point he prophetically touches on the rise of German nationalism at the very time Hitler grabbed power. Using the language of the ‘Iron Hand’, his hero said: “The Iron Hand movement was on the face of it just an organization of ex-soldiers,… partly benevolent and partly nationalist. There were thousands of members who only joined to keep up the fellowship of the trenches. But there was an inner circle to it which was playing a bigger part in politics, and an innermost circle which meant real mischief… Peace in the world was the last thing they sought, for their only hope lay in a new and bigger ferment…” Buchan clearly understood the world in which we find ourselves – a world where we find enormous good, but where extraordinary evil wants to do its worst.
Discernment. It is into such a world that Jesus enjoins his followers, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents andharmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Jesus wants us to be aware of the nature of our world. He wants us to be discerning about the motives of people around us, especially those who might seem to be with us and yet who, deep down, are utterly opposed to peace and goodwill.
NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION
At the end of Matthew’s Gospel we have his statement, “All authority has been given to me…” and his commission: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them… and teaching them all I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:16, 18f). “Go and make disciples…” – not simply converts, but men and women whose lives are being enriched and honed by God’s Word in the cause of Jesus Christ. Governments, economics, education and the rule of law have their place, but the call that transcends all is the challenge to change minds and hearts – to address the soul. For, we are more than the sum of our parts. We are spiritual beings, created with the potential to know God and glorify and enjoy him forever.
This is the challenge the Anglican Connection has taken on – one, by God’s mercy, we will continue to develop in 2015.
Never alone. The great thing is that we are never alone. Jesus said, ‘I am with you the whole of every day, until the end of the age’ (Matthew 28:20). In his Christmas Speech in 1939, as Britain entered a year of fierce onslaught, His Majesty, King George VI concluded with this quotation:
“I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be better than light, and safer than a known way.”
Writing in the Weekend Australian Magazine eleven days ago, Nikki Gemmel noted that Christmas carols are slipping away from our culture. She commented that this is a loss, for ours is ‘the age of loneliness; of fear and flinch’. Significantly, she further noted, ‘There’s a spiritual hankering that will always persist. The hankering for guidance to raise children within a moral framework is deep within the human spirit, and the atheists haven’t provided anything substantive to step into the breech. Religion will not disappear. It still shapes our world.’ (Weekend AustralianMagazine, December 13/14, 2014)
Assuming Nikki Gemmel’s observation is correct, a question worth asking ourselves and others, especially at Christmas, is this: ‘Is there a stand-out religion?’ If so, what is it like?
TRUTH
Writing in his Letter to the Colossians, Paul the Apostle commented on the way that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ had changed the lives of his Colossian readers, as indeed it was changing lives and growing throughout the world. Significantly, he wrote of the gospel as the word of the truth. ‘You Colossians came to know the grace of God in all its truth’, he was saying. He could have left out any reference to the word truth, but he didn’t.
As we think about this, we can say it is true in a counter-intuitive sense – the statements it makes about God and men and women are beyond human invention and imagination. No one of us would have invented a God who was prepared to come as a baby, born into a humble home for our benefit. None of us would have dreamed of a God who, in the cause of rescuing a faithless world, would die an unjust and awful death. Nor would we conceive that such is God’s justice that the death of his one and only Son was the only way he could break the bonds of sin and death for us. A gospel like this can’t be contradicted. Christianity is a good example of GK Chesterton’s observation that ‘Truth is stranger than fiction’.
Furthermore, the gospel is true in an historical sense – the accounts of the birth, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus are not an invention. Luke is insistent he was accurately narrating events witnessed by eye-witnesses (Luke 1:2), events that fulfilled promises made by prophets over a period of five hundred years (for example, 2 Samuel 7:12-13; Isaiah 9:2-7).
Third, the gospel is true in an experiential sense – when we put our trust in Jesus Christ who is at the centre of the gospel message, we discover that our faith is not a hoax. It is a genuine experience.
WHY WAS JESUS BORN
The answer is found in the names and titles given in the announcement at Jesus’ birth: “To you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour, who is the Christ, the Lord.” We might like the titles, Christ and Lord, but we baulk at Savior. ‘We don’t need saving,’ we say. But the fact is we do. Here is the heart of Christianity. This is the religion we all need.
Carols. And when we know this Christ, the Lord, as our Savior, we will want to sing the great music of Christianity – including the carols. Indeed, we will want to hear again and sing out the majestic words of the ‘Halleluiah Chorus’ of Handel’s Messiah: ‘King of kings, and Lord of lords, and he shall reign for ever and ever… Halleluiah! Halleluiah!’
May you know the rich joy of the coming of Jesus Christ, our Savior this Christmas.
Only ten days to Christmas and Sydneysiders were shocked and horrified by the hostage-taking in Downtown Sydney in Martin Place. Our hearts go out to the families of the two hostages who died. The evil that shook the world on 9/11 has now reached Australia.
In dark times like this we find the advice of political leaders and the voices of commentators intent on being helpful, only take us so far. Indeed, when we are confronted with such events, we find that the words of the Bible speak into our lives with wisdom and power.
VENGEANCE
Retaliation? So it is when we turn to Paul’s Letter to the Romans that we read:
Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all (12:17).
In Romans 12:14-21, Paul sets out four counter-cultural prohibitions expressing the same theme in different words: retaliation and revenge are absolutely forbidden to the followers of Jesus.
Yes, there is a place for the punishment of evil-doers in the law courts, as Paul goes on to say in 13:1-4. But in personal conduct we’re never to get our own back by injuring those who have injured us. Non-retaliation was a very early feature of Christian ethics.
Paul’s ethic is not simply negative for his injunctions include a positive command. We are not to curse but to bless (12:14). We are not to retaliate, but to do what is right and to live in peace (12:17-18). We are not to take revenge but leave this to God; meanwhile we are to serve our enemies (12:19, 20). We are not to be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.
We are called upon to do what is right – good things – in the eyes of everybody. After all it would be inconsistent to refrain from evil if at the same time we’re not actively doing good.
So, in verse 18 we read: If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. To refuse to repay evil is to refuse to inflate a quarrel. But this is not enough. We also have to take the initiative in positive peace-making, even if it is not always possible. Sometimes other people are either not willing to live at peace with us, or they lay down a condition for reconciliation that involves an unacceptable moral compromise.
JUSTICE
This does not mean that justice will not be done. Paul continues: Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’It is God’s work to avenge, not ours. He will judge, and he will judge justly. The reason personal retaliation is forbidden to us is that judgement is God’s prerogative, not ours.
In the final verses of this remarkable chapter (12:19-21), Paul balances two ideas. We are to leave any necessary punishment to God and get busy in serving our enemy’s welfare. So, we read: “Vengeance is mine says the Lord…” but then, “If your enemy is hungry, feed them…” Our personal responsibility is to love and serve our enemy according to their needs, and genuinely to seek their highest good – thus heaping coals of fire. The coals are intended to heal, not to hurt, to win, not to alienate – in fact to shame them into repentance.
Pray. When you feel angry, pray. Turn the anger into prayers to the one majestic God who is not only all-powerful, but merciful and good, just and victorious.
Paul draws a vital distinction between the duty of private citizens to love and serve the evil-doer, and the duty of public servants – law-makers and judges – as official agents of God’s justice, to bring the evil-doer to trial, and if convicted to punish them. Both principles are seen operating when Jesus died on the cross. On the one hand, ‘When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate’. On the other, ‘he entrusted himself to him who judges justly’.
John Stott comments:
‘It is even better to be positive, to bless, to do good, to seek peace, and to serve and convert our enemy, because if we thus repay good for evil we reduce the tally of evil in the world, while at the same time increasing the tally of good. To repay evil for evil is to be overcome by it. To repay good for evil is to overcome evil with good. This is the way of the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.’
