Is Christ Revealed?

 I came home from a sermon by an associate pastor at the church I was attending just a week or so before Thanksgiving, 2019 and began to think about it. I began to draft an alternative version of his roughly 35-minute sermon into something more like 15 minutes. By about Thanksgiving, it had pretty much taken shape, then sat around for another few years until I recently resurrected it. Following is my version of the sermon. (You can get hints of the content of the AP’s original in some of my comments.)

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Mask Mandates Unmask a “Christian Nation”

(I know that some will insist this is more political than Christian. But the thrust of the argument is aimed at Christians who shun the very things that we say are the foundations of our faith.)

Jayson D Bradley writes a blog called “Honest to God” at Patheos. In mid-May, 2020, he took on the Christian Nation myth in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. You can read his post here (assuming it is still active at Patheos).

Like Bradley, I have noticed how many of the people I know through church, both current and prior affiliation, are more concerned with their “rights” as Americans than they are the commandments of the God that they claim to follow as part of a “higher calling.” Parts of this higher calling are to follow, to love all, and to become servants to others — many distinctive actions that seem to always put someone else ahead of ourselves.

The Kingdom of God is Like Leaven

Right before Christmas 2019 I took a look at facebook — something I had done very rarely in the years up to then — and was greeted with a post by a niece (my brother’s daughter) of her roughly 7 month old daughter. She had the cutest face and smile, and a bow in her hair with a very out-of-focus tree and lights in the background. Maybe a professional photo but I suspect that her dad is more than capable of the feat.

But as I looked at the photo, while I am not that good at seeing resemblances, I realized that this face I was seeing is a combination of particular genes flowing forward from numerous family lines that came together in my niece and her husband, and then just those that surfaced in my great niece.

And I was reminded of the rather brief analogy Jesus gave to describe the Kingdom of God.

God Does Not Have a Plan For Your Life

This morning, I awoke to the sounds of the “Jeff and Rebecca” on a local Christian radio station. (I admit that classic rock would be more productive for getting me out of bed, but my wife wins.) This morning, Rebecca said something that I have waited from someone other than me to say.

“God does not have a plan for your life.”

Probably not those exact words. But close enough. She elaborated further that God has a plan, and that we have a part in that plan, but it is not a plan for our individual lives.

What is Salvation

A fairly recent series on Calvinism in a podcast that I have been following for some time raises an interesting issue. Much of the evangelical community leans to a “Calvinist” view of salvation/atonement while certain portions of the community follow an Arminian view. The two views are not exactly what most of us think they are, and it might be argued are not as far from each other as the average follower of either thinks. In fact, outside of the question “what is predestination?” there is really only one issue in the minds of the average believer. That is the assurance of salvation. And that assurance is often stated in terms of “once saved, always saved,” or it is stated conversely that salvation can be lost.

But if you ask a true Bible scholar, and card-carrying, 5-point Calvinist, “once saved, always saved” is a misrepresentation of the Calvinist position.

If this is the case, how do the New Testament writers refer to assurance, and to the “joy of your salvation” if it is not a certain thing?

Pluralism

While my first reaction to this word when used in the context of Christian theology is to recoil in terror, I have heard it used in a way that is enlightening. And that enlightenment came from a source that I did not expect.

The discussion was about the dichotomy of the “we have it right and everyone else is wrong” and “to each his own” ways of thinking about religion and God. My source suggested that there is a middle ground that looks like pluralism to the “my way or the highway” crowd, but approximates what he believes is the real teaching of the Bible. This middle ground is not concerned with arguing the heathen into belief in Christ, chanting religious slogans, or proclaiming judgment upon sinners. It is tasked to live as Christ lived on the earth. It is to carry out the Great Commandment — love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

Returning to Focus

Sort of been MIA for a while. Much of source of material has changed. For various reasons, we are now part of a different Bible church (I have nothing but praise for our former assembly). And I have not found the usual background of postmodern/emerging/emergent material lately.

Oh, it is still there. Mars Hill (Seattle, not Grand Rapids) caught-up in controversy over excessive discipline of members. John Piper declaring Christianity to rightly be a male-dominated religion.

But these just have not gotten my juices flowing.

But while I definitely consider myself in the Bible church wing of the evangelical camp, there is something beginning to nag at me about evangelicalism as a whole. The problem is not that I think that their positions are wrong. Rather that they are out of balance. But I don't know how to think about it because I do not know how to arrive at any kind of more "correct" balance.