Thoughts going in, Sunday Nov 3rd

11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory. 15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all his people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that can be invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

            Like many churches we will transfer the festival of All Saints from November 1st to this Sunday, Nov 3rd, and call it "All Saints Sunday." YES, it's a shame that we can't simply have a special service on Nov 1st and expect people to be able to come and enjoy it. Yes, it's a shame that the normal propers for the Sunday are displaced.... but in the oft-repeated existential phrase of our day, it is what it is. A far worse case scenario, in my opinion, would be to simply let the standard Sunday propers stay in place and not mention anything about the observance of All Saints. The Sundays & Seasons website gives us a good introduction to the festival: 

            The custom of commemorating on a single day all the saints of the church, especially the    many unknown martyrs, originated in the fourth century. By the eighth century, the  festival commemorating all saints had been moved in England and Ireland to November 1 in order to Christianize the Celtic harvest festival of Samhain which marked the beginning of winter and communal attention to the dead. In current Christian use, the day is dedicated to thanksgiving for all the unnamed who died in the Lord. In many assemblies, the names of those who have died over the previous twelve months are read aloud, a practice originally associated with All Souls Day on November 2. The conflation  of the two emphases fits with the Protestant beliefs that all the Christian dead are saints, none needs release from purgatory, and it is only to God whom we pray.

With that in mind, and given the appointed readings, I decided to focus in on the Ephesians text. It's a very dense text that can be used to discuss any number of aspects of the life of faith. Regarding vs 18 above, I took the liberty of correcting the TNIV rendering. Originally, the TNIV--normally my preferred translation for public reading of the Bible--rendered vs 18 as: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his PEOPLE... The Greek of the text is 'toi hagio.' "Hagios" is an adjective meaning "holy." In the plural (plural definite article), toi hagio becomes 'the holies'... or more appropriately, the holy ones... aka SAINTS. Most other English translations render the word 'saints' in vs 18, so I can only think that the NIV/TNIV tradition has a slight bias against the word and what it has come to mean in its narrow Roman Catholic sense. Thus, as I say, I've taken the liberty to 'correct' the TNIV & render the verse: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his saints.

            The thing is, a healthy PROTESTANT understanding of the saints... and All Saints day.. will always have two thrusts. Thrust #1 is the understanding that it's not JUST the super-heroes of the faith that constitute "saints," but ALL BELIEVERS by virtue of their baptism have a saintly status. This means that we have our own personal SAINTS. This means that in our lifetime we have rubbed shoulders with THE SAINTS. Again, I like how the Sundays & Seasons website fleshes this out:

           

            Who is your saint? Often in surveys, people are most likely to identify a parent, a    grandparent, a close family friend, a mentor. Hearing each other's stories—of real saints,  the ones that really matter to us, can be incredibly powerful. Did you have a grandmother who peppered her letters with quotes from scripture, or a grandpa who sang hymns robustly in worship? Did your own parent give themselves to the cause of justice? Who is your saint? Share your stories, and trust that it will resonate with others who have their own.

And then the second important thrust in a Protestant understanding of the saints is that this status of sainthood applies to US PERSONALLY, as baptized believers. This is where vs 18 from the above text really shines. Paul is urging his readers (the Ephesian Christians 2000 yrs ago AND us today) that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened and that we would KNOW what we've been called to. We've been called to this status of SAINTHOOD. We've been called to be HOLY ONES. **NOT, by the way, "holier-than-thou" ones.... but holy ones; people set apart for God's purpose on earth; people set apart to proclaim the good news; people set apart to be agents of grace in this broken world; people set apart to reflect the love of Christ to those who only know despair; people set apart to offer the world a different vision, a vision of God's reign of justice and equity.

            Sainthood isn't just for superstars. All of God's people have a saintly status by virtue of their baptism, and that means that all of God's people have a saintly CALLING in which to aspire.

Cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday Nov 3rd

11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory. 15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all his people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that can be invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

            Like many churches we will transfer the festival of All Saints from November 1st to this Sunday, Nov 3rd, and call it "All Saints Sunday." YES, it's a shame that we can't simply have a special service on Nov 1st and expect people to be able to come and enjoy it. Yes, it's a shame that the normal propers for the Sunday are displaced.... but in the oft-repeated existential phrase of our day, it is what it is. A far worse case scenario, in my opinion, would be to simply let the standard Sunday propers stay in place and not mention anything about the observance of All Saints. The Sundays & Seasons website gives us a good introduction to the festival: 

            The custom of commemorating on a single day all the saints of the church, especially the    many unknown martyrs, originated in the fourth century. By the eighth century, the        festival commemorating all saints had been moved in England and Ireland to November    1 in order to Christianize the Celtic harvest festival of Samhain which marked the           beginning of winter and communal attention to the dead. In current Christian use, the         day is dedicated to thanksgiving for all the unnamed who died in the Lord. In many          assemblies, the names of those who have died over the previous twelve months are read          aloud, a practice originally associated with All Souls Day on November 2. The conflation   of the two emphases fits with the Protestant beliefs that all the Christian dead are saints, none needs release from purgatory, and it is only to God whom we pray.

With that in mind, and given the appointed readings, I decided to focus in on the Ephesians text. It's a very dense text that can be used to discuss any number of aspects of the life of faith. Regarding vs 18 above, I took the liberty of correcting the TNIV rendering. Originally, the TNIV--normally my preferred translation for public reading of the Bible--rendered vs 18 as: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his PEOPLE... The Greek of the text is 'toi hagio.' "Hagios" is an adjective meaning "holy." In the plural (plural definite article), toi hagio becomes 'the holies'... or more appropriately, the holy ones... aka SAINTS. Most other English translations render the word 'saints' in vs 18, so I can only think that the NIV/TNIV tradition has a slight bias against the word and what it has come to mean in its narrow Roman Catholic sense. Thus, as I say, I've taken the liberty to 'correct' the TNIV & render the verse: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his saints.

            The thing is, a healthy PROTESTANT understanding of the saints... and All Saints day.. will always have two thrusts. Thrust #1 is the understanding that it's not JUST the super-heroes of the faith that constitute "saints," but ALL BELIEVERS by virtue of their baptism have a saintly status. This means that we have our own personal SAINTS. This means that in our lifetime we have rubbed shoulders with THE SAINTS. Again, I like how the Sundays & Seasons website fleshes this out:

           

            Who is your saint? Often in surveys, people are most likely to identify a parent, a    grandparent, a close family friend, a mentor. Hearing each other's stories—of real saints,            the ones that really matter to us, can be incredibly powerful. Did you have a            grandmother who peppered her letters with quotes from scripture, or a grandpa who            sang hymns robustly in worship? Did your own parent give themselves to the cause of             justice? Who is your saint? Share your stories, and trust that it will resonate with others    who have their own.

And then the second important thrust in a Protestant understanding of the saints is that this status of sainthood applies to US PERSONALLY, as baptized believers. This is where vs 18 from the above text really shines. Paul is urging his readers (the Ephesian Christians 2000 yrs ago AND us today) that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened and that we would KNOW what we've been called to. We've been called to this status of SAINTHOOD. We've been called to be HOLY ONES. **NOT, by the way, "holier-than-thou" ones.... but holy ones; people set apart for God's purpose on earth; people set apart to proclaim the good news; people set apart to be agents of grace in this broken world; people set apart to reflect the love of Christ to those who only know despair; people set apart to offer the world a different vision, a vision of God's reign of justice and equity.

            Sainthood isn't just for superstars. All of God's people have a saintly status by virtue of their baptism, and that means that all of God's people have a saintly CALLING in which to aspire.

Cheers,

TM

Philemon, Onesimus, & the rest of the story

For those who were unable to attend the final class on Philemon this past Sunday, I wanted to post the details behind the “Paul Harvey ‘Rest of the Story’” finish to our study.

The million dollar question regarding the letter of Philemon is: what was Philemon’s response? Paul is somewhat short on specifics regarding his ‘request.’ He urges Philemon to take Onesimus back; he urges him to receive Onesimus as a brother, etc. etc, but Paul never comes right out and urges freedom for Onesimus. How does the story end?

It’s impossible to say with certainty, but history has left us some interesting clues. For the sake of argument we can accept that the letter of Philemon was written around 60AD. We can also assume that Onesimus was roughly 20yrs old at that time.

Fast forwarding to the year 117AD, we find the Church Father Ignatius of Antioch on his way to Rome to be martyred in the coliseum. On his way to Rome Ignatius wrote letters to the churches—letters that have been preserved to this day. The following excerpt is from his letter to the church at Ephesus:

CHAPTER I.--PRAISE OF THE EPHESIANS.

I have become acquainted with your name, much-beloved in God, which ye have acquired by the habit of righteousness, according to the faith and love in Jesus Christ our Saviour. Being the followers of God, and stirring up yourselves by the blood of God, ye have perfectly accomplished the work which was beseeming to you. For, on hearing that I came bound from Syria for the common name and hope, trusting through your prayers to be permitted to fight with beasts at Rome, that so by martyrdom I may indeed become the disciple of Him "who gave Himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God,"[ye hastened to see me]. I received, therefore, your whole multitude in the name of God, through Onesimus, a man of inexpressible love, and your bishop in the flesh, whom I pray you by Jesus Christ to love, and that you would all seek to be like him. And blessed be He who has granted unto you, being worthy, to obtain such an excellent bishop.

Bishop Onesimus?? That part seems incontrovertible. THE QUESTION is whether or not this is the same Onesimus from Paul’s letter to Philemon. Of course there’s no real way to know. However, whoever Bishop Onesimus was, he must’ve had a similar story. “Onesimus” wasn’t a common name that Mr. & Mrs. Roman citizen would give to their baby boy. It was, rather, a slave market name; a ‘sticker on the merchandise,’ if you will… saying ‘buy this one…he’s a useful worker.’ [the very definition of the word onesimus]

Putting two and two together, the tradition of the Church has it that Philemon did indeed welcome back Onesimus as per St. Paul’s plea, and not only that, Onesimus was freed by Philemon and became a leader in the movement, following Timothy as the Bishop of Ephesus. As far as the math, Bishop Onesimus, the former slave of Philemon, would've been in his late 70s or early 80s at the time Ignatius wrote his letter. It's certainly POSSIBLE.

And THAT, as Paul Harvey would say, is the rest of the story.

Cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday Oct. 27th

Romans 3:19-28:  19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood--to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. 27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the "law" that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

            This Sunday is commonly observed as "Reformation Sunday," in which we transfer the Protestant festival from its historic date of Oct 31st (the day Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Chapel in 1517) to the nearest Sunday.

            The readings for this festival are always the same. They include the promise of a new covenant based on grace as found in the words of Jeremiah; they include the TRUTH setting one free in the words of St. John's gospel; and they include the above, powerful words of St. Paul about justification. There are 2 key thoughts in this passage that remain as relevant to us today as they did in Luther's day (to say nothing of Paul's day). They are:

            --The truth that righteousness before God is based on faith in The Truly Righteous One. This is the gist of vss 21-22: 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. It was, and perhaps still is, a very 'stretching' concept to think of the Righteousness of God as an individual, as opposed to a concept. Indeed, in Luther's day it was very common to think of the righteousness of God as being JUDGMENT. This is when the jig is up! If you encounter the righteousness of God, you are in essence standing at a toll booth owing more .... much more... than you have. If you encounter the righteousness of God, this is where your own good works get placed on a scale and measured against God's goodness and holiness.... and guess what... it's NO CONTEST. You lose! And so with this thinking in place, it's no wonder that the "best news" the Official Church could think of was to invent the doctrine of Purgatory. Here's a place you can go after you die that will give you a chance to work off those extra tolls you owe. It's a horrible, painful, experience, but at least it's not hell and at least it's not forever. ALL of this comes from missing the point that Paul is making in vss 21-22. Encountering the righteousness of God isn't encountering his legal code, or his judgment; it is encountering a PERSON; the babe of Bethlehem; the suffering savior on the cross. And in encountering **HIM, in faith, a wonderful exchange happens. His righteousness is GIVEN to YOU as a free gift.

            --The other main thrust of this text is found in the last verse, vs 28: For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from observing the law. Actually, this is one of those rare occasions when I do not prefer the TNIV translation.... primarily because "observing the law" is a bit nebulous compared to the original Greek. So for our purposes I'll choose the ESV translation which reads: For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. I think it's important to get that word "works" (or deeds) in there, as it is clearly stated in the Greek "ergon." So in other words what's going on here is that the 1st point expresses that God's righteousness becomes ours BY FAITH, whereas the 2nd point expresses the truth that this results in a *status known as "justified"... that has nothing to do with the performance of deeds (religious or otherwise). To be justified is to be in a currently right/acceptable relationship with God. To be justified means to be vindicated; to be found as 'just' in a law-court.

            Why does any of this matter? As Luther knew, this is the very heart of the Gospel. Humanity has one basic core problem: we are broken. We are sinful. On our best days we build hospitals for the poor and feed the hungry, but our best days are woefully few and far between. In the creation story of Genesis it says that initially God looked around and pronounced it all "GOOD,"... meaning GOOD by His holy and righteous standards. But we all know that this isn't the world we live in anymore. Our attempt at 'righteousness,' on the rare occasions that we even try, is tainted at best. And so the point is this... either GOD FIXES THIS PROBLEM himself, or it doesn't get fixed. And so in part, Reformation Day is about celebrating the truth of the Gospel; it's about celebrating the fact that we can faithfully proclaim that God has fixed this problem by virtue of sending us His Own Righteousness, in his Son.

            But there's another angle to this thing. I know we live in an age when it's not polite to 'dis' our neighbor's religion. And certainly no Protestant is happier with the new Pope (Pope Francis) than I am. He is a breath of long-awaited fresh air when compared to Benedict or even John-Paul II. His personal piety of living in simplicity, and his public statements of tolerance have made him the darling of the media. But as others have pointed out... and as he has said himself, he has not changed the teaching of 'The Church.'  Newsflash: The Pope is still Catholic. The catechism of the Catholic Church is still in place; the pronouncements from the Council of Trent are still in place. Purgatory is still the official teaching of the Church, as is justification by a combination of faith + works.

            Now and then well-meaning people start to wonder if there's a 'reason' to be Protestant anymore; is there a reason to be Lutheran; is there a reason to celebrate Reformation Day; does the Reformation even matter in 2013? One need look no further than the smiling friendly face of Pope Francis. By Rome's standards, he is and will be a wonderful Pope. But by biblical standards, he still stands in OPPOSITION to St. Paul's words: For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Sola Scriptura

Sola Fide

Sola Gratia

Cheers,

TM