Trip Notes

I survived my first official out-of-state business trip. The trip was to a large conference where I was to maintain my organization's booth. Here are some highlights:

• Talking with people. On a normal office day, I can pester only a grand total of 8 coworkers. And though I'm an introvert, I'm a social introvert and I like meeting new folks. I credit this to 5 years of coffee slinging and customer service.
• Meeting folks from my seminary. My school has several campuses scattered throughout the states. I had a blast meeting people from other campuses (and some alums from my own).
• Dinners in a foreign town. One horrible restaurant with lackluster service, saved by company and conversation. Thank you Orlando contingent. One rather decent TexMex meal, generously paid for by folks I'd met about a hour before dinner was served. Thank you North Carolina church staff.
• Multiple opportunities for future partnerships to think and pray about. This actually began a few weeks ago, and once again the same school came up this week as a possible PhD location. This is, of course, after I'd written it off in my mind as a "would be nice but it would never work out" idea. Now I feel prompted to reconsider the option. And that was only one of the amazing opportunities discussed!
• Watching the Bride of Christ. This was a Christian conference, comprised of a denomination going through a rough-but-necessary transition. The juxtaposition of the Body marred by the effects of a sinful world but fighting for Truth contains sadness, beauty, mystery and humility, and draws us to grace, and our rest in Christ alone.

Downsides...

• Cold, rainy weather. I volunteered to go partly because it was in what should have been a warm state. At least warmer than where I am now!
• Getting (motion) sick on the flight out there. Not fun. Thankfully, I did not get sick on the way home, and I almost finished The Once and Future King. Should have been whipping through some Hebrew flashcards... tisk, tisk.

Suffering: Implications for Missions

Implications for Missions

Regrettably, the American Church continues to fall short in its understanding of the significance of suffering. Our claims of suffering have little to do with that which Christ calls us. We are unpopular, political scapegoats, unkindly labeled as Jesus Freaks or disdainfully spoken of at office parties as closed-minded Christians, often deservedly so. Is this the cross Christ calls us to bear? Surely the Sermon on the Mount speaks of more than just bruised egos, characterization, tarnished pride, or chastisement.

Extrapolating from the rest of New Testament teachings on suffering provides insights into the relationship of those who do face persecution for righteousness sake, and those who are not, on a regular basis, systematically or institutionally persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ. Observing so far that Christ calls his followers to suffer as he did, Peter and Paul illustrate in their New Testament writings that suffering together is a mark of discipleship. How should this affect the way we view the global, suffering Church? Supporting the local, indigenous Church as they suffer shows the love of Christ to the world, unifies the Church in her sufferings, and heeds Christ’s call to suffering.

The essential union of the Church as One Body under Christ is the key element to wrestling this issue. It would be tragic and incorrect to say that because we do not suffer, we do not truly believe. This would, in a very real sense, be the opposite mistake of the prosperity gospel. Yet, if one part of the body suffers, we should sense that pain enough to join in the sufferings. Paul illustrates the beauty of this mystery in 2 Corinthians:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.[1]

This sharing of sufferings and comfort is, as stated above, how the Church body experiences the resurrection power of Christ. This is a call to be unified in all things, as Christ prayed in his High Priestly Prayer in John 17. He calls us to suffer, together as one holy Church, for righteousness and his namesake, granting us the kingdom of heaven, because it is through this selflessness and love that the world will be drawn to him.[2] “The Spirit binds the church together in the unity of a common life. At the same time, the presence of the Spirit of Christ, through a foretaste of glory, also joins the church to Christ in his suffering, and shows us the glory of the cross. The Spirit who groans in yearning for the glory to come joins us to Christ in our present suffering,” Clowney describes.[3]

Later in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus illustrates the proper response to suffering within the Church. In the parable of the Sheep and Goats, those who inherit the kingdom are rewarded because they helped “the least of these brothers of mine.”[4] In Galatians, Paul writes, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”[5] Elsewhere Christ reminds us that we will always have the poor with us; this does not mean that we should not work to alleviate poverty. Our first response should be to aid the suffering Church, our brothers and sisters in our family.

There continues today an assumption among the Western Church that the value of religious freedom is inherent in all countries and cultures. The lack of recognition that Christians still face persecution is detrimental to the life of the Church, and clearly not obeying the call of Christ.[6] Christianity Today reports “that the majority of Christians in the developed West – and in the United States in particular – have shown either ignorance or indifference about global Christian persecution.”[7] Nina Shea, former director of Freedom House’s Puebla Program on Religious Freedom, asserts “Christians are in fact the most persecuted religious group in the world today, with the greatest number of victims.”[8]

The numbers are often startling. As of 2002, there were1.7 billion Christians worldwide, but they are a religious minority in 87 countries and territories.[9] As many as one in ten face daily persecution of some form. They are often legally or institutionally persecuted because of their identification as Christians. This may mean job, heath care or education discrimination. The local Church may have difficulty obtaining building permits or gathering to worship without being monitored, afraid of arrest or worse.[10]

We are not called to suffer alone. Christ is near in our times of suffering; his representative body, the Church, should be near as well. Christians are called to boast for one another, to share with those in chains for the gospel, and to remember the mistreated.[11] Barclay believed that it is not individual man’s duty to raise issues of conscience in a society, but that of the Church. He does not follow this to the logical conclusion that when the Church in one part has stood for Christ, the whole Church must stand with her.[12]

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[1] 2 Corinthians 1:3-7
[2] John 13:34
[3] Clowney, The Church, 53
[4] Matthew 25:40
[5] Galatians 6:10
[6] Kim A. Lawton, “CT Classic: The Suffering Church.” n.p. [Cited 1 April 2002]. Online: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/aprilweb-only/4-29-44.0.html
[7] Lawton, “CT Classic: The Suffering Church.”
[8] Lawton, “CT Classic: The Suffering Church.”
[9] Lawton, “CT Classic: The Suffering Church.”
[10] Sookhdeo, Patrick, ed. “The Persecuted Church,” Lausanne Occasional Paper No. 32, 2005.
[11] 2 Thessalonians 1:4, 2 Timothy 1:8, Hebrews 13:3
[12] Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, 118

Suffering: Call to the Church

Call to the Church

The sum of apostolic teaching reflects this proclamation of suffering for the people of Christ, illustrated poignantly by Peter in his first letter and Paul in his second letter to the church at Corinth. The unity of the suffering Church is expressed when Peter writes, “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”[1] Edmund Clowney captures the tension of union with Christ in both suffering and glory, seen in Matthew and Peter:

But how do we taste that glorious blessing? By suffering in fellowship with Christ, bearing insults for his name ([Peter] 4:13-14). Christ’s Spirit leads the church down the path the Saviour took, the path to Golgotha. ‘To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps’ ([Peter] 2:21).”[2]

The power of the resurrection is visibly at work in faith, hope and love, and the realization of that power in Christ’s sufferings.[3] So central is suffering that Gaffin calls this the “locus of Christ’s ascension-power.”[4] The resurrection power of Christ is manifested in the suffering Church.[5]

The Church is one Body in Christ and so should suffer as one. So long as one member suffers, suffering will remain a mark of discipleship in the Church. Stott views persecution as a “token of genuineness, a certificate of Christian authenticity.”[6] He continues, quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship. The disciple is not above his master. Following Christ means passio passive, suffering because we have to suffer. That is why Luther reckoned suffering among the marks of the true Church, and one of the memoranda drawn up in preparation for the Augsburg Confession similarly defines the Church as the community of those “who are persecuted and martyred for the gospel’s sake”… Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering Christ, and it is therefore not at all surprising that Christians should be called upon to suffer. In fact, it is a joy and a token of his grace.[7]

Later in Matthew’s Gospel, we see that those who fall away in the face of persecution were not regenerate. To those who belong to Christ, it has been granted that they should and will suffer.[8] Suffering is not an addition to the gospel by any means. As Gaffin explains, “the controlling consideration is union with Christ in his death and resurrection such that to “know”/experience Christ is to experience the power of his resurrection and that, in turn, is to experience the fellowship of his sufferings – a total reality that can be summed up at conformity to Christ’s death.”[9]

[1] 1 Peter 4:13-14
[2] Clowney, The Church, 62
[3] Gaffin, “Theonomy and Eschatology: Some Reflections on Postmillennialism,” 10
[4] Gaffin, “Theonomy and Eschatology: Some Reflections on Postmillennialism,” 10
[5] Gaffin, “Theonomy and Eschatology: Some Reflections on Postmillennialism,” 10
[6] Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, 52
[7] Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount , 53
[8] Philippians 1:29, 2 Timothy 3:12; Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount , 77
[9] Gaffin, “Theonomy and Eschatology: Some Reflections on Postmillennialism,” 10

Sightings

It's back.

Competing with UFO's in Texas, the Wiener Mobile made it's second appearance on my street (and in my usual parking spot).

Night shot:

I'm mildly entertained by all the cars stopping to take pictures on their cell phones. And then I remember that I took my camera with me on a run tonight to catch this shot.

Suffering: Defining Suffering

The paper continues below.

A note about comments: due to some irritating spam comments, I've enabled comment moderation. I hope that does not dissuade anyone and apologize for the inconvenience.

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Richard Gaffin uses a more comprehensive definition of suffering, inclusive of the effects of a fallen world. He does acknowledge that there are “trivial” and “monumental” examples of suffering. However, by defining suffering as “everything that pertains to creaturely experiences [because] of this death-principle,” he strays from his otherwise solid argument that suffering is a fundamental aspect of Church existence.[1] What is neglected by connecting suffering with the “bondage to decay” is that all creation suffers under the frustration of sin - this is not singular to the Church. Just as there is common grace and special, salvific grace, so is there common sufferings of all mankind, but the special sufferings of the Church are distinct to the Body of Christ.

Contrary to Gaffin’s articulation of suffering as a consequence the “futility/decay principle,” the suffering of the Church is directly associated with Christ and the adherence to righteousness.[2] When Christ says you will be persecuted because of me, and you will be persecuted because of righteousness, he unmistakably joins the suffering of his followers to the proclamation of himself as Righteous Lord. John also records Jesus’ association of himself, truth and our suffering:

If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not
belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the
world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than
his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed
my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of
my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.[3]

The world will reject the Church as it rejects the truth of Christ, because his teaching is counter to the expectations of the world. Just as first century Judaism wanted a political Messiah to liberate them from Roman rule, the world today cannot fathom a ruler – let alone God himself – reigning by humbly serving. However, the Church’s suffering is not from a flaunting of herself:

“The persecution Jesus is talking about and for which believers are to ‘rejoice
and be glad’ is not the hostility that will come to them from the world because
they have made themselves a nuisance, insulted people they are trying to
influence, or been rude, crude, or fanatical. It is because they have
become like Christ in his righteousness and are therefore being hated for
righteousness’ sake, as Jesus was,” Boice explains.[4]

It is this righteousness that some will find repulsive. Barclay asked why persecution was inevitable, and answered with the following: “It is because the Church, when it really is the Church, is bound to be the conscience of the nation and the conscience of society. Where there is good the Church must praise; where there is evil the Church must condemn – and inevitably men will try to silence the troublesome voice of conscience.”[5] Friedrich Nietzsche found Christianity pitiful and weak because in Christ, God was not strong or brave or powerful.[6] But as the writer of Hebrews explains, “it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.”[7]

[1] Gaffin, “Theonomy and Eschatology: Some Reflections on Postmillennialism,” 9-11
[2] Gaffin, “Theonomy and Eschatology: Some Reflections on Postmillennialism,” 11
[3] John 15:19-21
[4] Boice, The Gospel of Matthew, 76
[5] Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew 118
[6] Stott, The Message of The Sermon on the Mount, 55
[7] Hebrews 2:10

Suffering: Why Suffering?

Disclaimer: This week I got my final grade for this class, and apparently this paper is total crap.

Enjoy!

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Why Suffering?

There are three main observations made when examining why the Church is called to suffering. One, Christ came as a Suffering Servant to fulfill covenant demands. Second, he modeled this suffering throughout his public and private ministry. Third, he called his disciples to suffer, and proclaims the suffering of his followers, his Church, until his return in glory.

The Covenant of Grace demands the suffering of Christ. For God to fulfill the terms of the Covenant – the unilateral Abramic covenant of grace – He had to be both Lord and Servant. Covenant relationships were solidified by the shedding of blood, specifically by the halving of a sacrificial animal, either between a superior king and vassal king, or between a lord and his servant. In the case of Abraham, the Covenant was made entirely on God’s initiative and actions. Abraham was a passive bystander, asleep during the actual event.[1] It was the Lord that passed down the center aisle, symbolizing that if the covenant were broken by either party, he would pay the penalty with the sacrifice of his own blood. God was and is both Lord and Servant of his Covenant – his righteousness and justice demanded the terms of the binding, legal covenant be met, and his death on the cross completely fulfilled those very demands. Only God himself could meet these demands, and this is found in the innocent blood of the crucified Christ.[2]

Throughout the Old Testament, the coming Messiah is one who will suffer and reign in glory.[3] We cannot miss or misplace one aspect or the other. He is most certainly sovereign and his return in glory is assured. But his sufferings on earth, and his call for us to suffer in the interadvental period, are also guaranteed. In stark contrast to the expectations of first century Judaism, Christ had to suffer to usher in his Kingdom reign; not as a political king, but a Servant King, and our identity in him should be that of suffering. His actions in the Gospels display that power is found in suffering, humiliation and service.[4]

The connection between the Suffering Servant and our submission to his call for the Church to suffer with him is found in the power of the resurrection. This is why Peter says,

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. [5]

Freedom in Christ is found in the power of his resurrection, and freedom from sin leads to suffering for truth.[6]

[1] Genesis 15
[2] Edmund Clowney, The Church, (Downers Grove. InterVarsity, 1995), 35-36
[3] See, among others, Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22.
[4] Richard Gaffin, “Theonomy and Eschatology: Some Reflections on Postmillennialism,” from Theonomy. A Reformed Critique, William S. Barker and W. Robert Godfrey, eds. (Grand Rapids. Zonderban, 1990), pp 197-224.
[5] 1 Peter 2:21
[6] Philippians 3:7-10

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Three sections left...

Suffering: Case Text (Part 2)

Four elements in Matthew 5:10-12 stand out: (1) this is characteristic of Kingdom people, (2) the relationship of righteousness and Christ, (3) suffering partakes in the heritage of the saints, and (4) we are to rejoice in our sufferings.

The Church of Christ, his Body, Bride and Building, comprises the kingdom inhabitants of the Kingdom of God, for which Matthew uses his favored phrase, “kingdom of heaven.” The characteristics found in the Beatitudes are purposefully striking in their tension with the world’s expectations and values. Our persecution for Christ’s sake comes not from our own obnoxiousness or self-righteousness, nor should it. It comes directly from “the clash between two irreconcilable value-systems.”[1] The Lord values humility, service, honesty, and selfless love. The world does not.

Christ blesses those persecuted for righteousness sake and those who are persecuted because of faith in him. Ridderbos argues that righteousness is connected with the concept of the kingdom of heaven, and not the righteousness imputed to us by Christ.[2] However, this is close to the traditional Lutheran view, and paints the Beatitudes as a revision of the Ten Commandments – a new law. Christ immediately dismisses this notion, illustrating that he came to fulfill the Law, and concluding that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”[3] Christ is not giving another law, impossible to fulfill. As James Boice explains, this righteousness is obviously unattainable on our own accord. It is only because of our own despair that we might turn to Christ and find new life in him.[4] The Beatitude examples are the working out of salvation, our sanctification. Just as Christ later urges us on to perfection, because we are perfected in him, so here he can speak of our becoming righteous as his righteousness.[5]

When Christ speaks of persecution in the Sermon on the Mount, he is not merely stating that those who stand for righteousness will face the possibility of persecution. This is a plain proclamation for all who trust in Christ. Jesus shifts, expanding from addressing those to addressing you.[6] Persecution is coupled with you, the disciples and followers of Christ, and it is the direct result of Christ himself.[7] The heritage of the disciples and the Body of Christ are one, because all are coheirs with Christ, “provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”[8]

The Church is linked with those who have gone before, offering a firm reminder to those that often benefit from others who have cleared the way. Barclay calls this “the bliss of the blood-stained way,” and he recounts that “to have to suffer persecution is, as Jesus himself said, the way to walk the same road as the prophets, and the saints, and the martyrs have walked. To suffer for the right is to gain a share in a great succession.”[9] As those called to suffer, the Church is now joined with Israel and the Old Testament prophets. This gives cause to rejoice, as it demonstrates the Church’s position as the Lord’s chosen people.

Commanding his followers to rejoice in our sufferings, Jesus reminds us that this is no small thing to be counted as his. The Church is chosen to display the Lord’s glory to the earth, and lest we become inflated with self-righteousness and pride, it must be done through suffering for the sake Christ our Lord. It is through the Church’s suffering that the world should look to the treasure of Christ, not to the jars of clay containing the prize.[10] We can rest in the hope that suffering produces, boasting in our weakness for the gain of Christ.[11]

[1] Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, 52
[2] Ridderbos, The Coming of the Kingdom, 286
[3] Matthew 5:20
[4] Boice, The Gospel of Matthew, 72
[5] Matthew 5:48
[6] Matthew 5:1-2
[7] Matthew 5:11
[8] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, (New York. Simon & Schuster, 1995), 107; Romans 8:17
[9] Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, 115
[10] 2 Corinthians 4:7
[11] Romans 5:3; 2 Corinthians 12:9

A poem, on Epiphany

Journey of the Magi

T.S. Eliot

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times when we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities dirty and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wineskins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

Suffering: Case Text (Part I)

Introduction

Case Text: The Last Beatitude

Disdain and distancing from suffering is nothing new or unique to today. Herman Ridderbos writes of the historical dilemma involving Christ’s suffering and that “the attempt has been made to cancel the significance of all this by explaining such explicit pronouncements on the necessity of the sufferings as vaticinia ex eventu (prophecies after the events) and ascribing them to the later Christian church.” [1] He is speaking of the sufferings of Christ, but the sufferings of our Savior and the call to the Church to join in his sufferings are tightly related. Ridderbos expounds, “In opposition to such conceptions it must be maintained that the idea of the suffering and death of Christ and its necessity is one of the most essential elements of the kerygma [proclamation, preaching] of Christ in the synoptic gospels and from the outset it also determined Jesus’ actions in word and deeds.”[2] Christ teaches that his followers will suffer in the Sermon on the Mount, and the New Testament writers repeatedly echo this teaching.

Historical scholarship and interpretations abound on the Sermon on the Mount, ranging from the interim ethic of Albert Schweitzer to the Lutheran view as a Sermon of (new) Law. This is close to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s view, but John Stott draws out that Bonhoeffer did capture the more reformed, kingdom-theology approach.[3] The set of standards found in the Beatitudes is addressed to the Church and must be the goal, with the ultimate realization that only through the resurrection power of Christ can believers strive towards that goal, and only in the future will the Church fully achieve it perfectly.[4] Ridderbos explains that these kingdom prescriptions “though still future as regards [to] its perfect consummation, it has fundamentally become a fact at the present moment.”[5]

All of the Beatitudes are descriptions of the character of the Church, yet the last Beatitude is the only one expanded and personalized. Christ is addressing his disciples, and by extension, all his followers, giving instructions in how they should set themselves apart in the world. This is how the world will see our witness, in our love for one another by living out the Beatitudes. When Christ gave the Great Commission - to go forth and be the Church[6] - this was his vision for how to be his Kingdom people. Our path of discipleship is along the road of the Beatitudes.

[1] Herman Ridderbos, The Coming of the Kingdom. Philadelphia. (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1962), 159
[2] Ridderbos, The Coming of the Kingdom, 159
[3] Stott, The Message of The Sermon on the Mount, 53
[4] Craig L. Blomberg, Jesus and the Gospels, (Nashville. Broadman & Holman, 1997), 247
[5] Ridderbos, The Coming of the Kingdom, 73
[6] Matthew 28:19-20; note the command to teach the disciples of all nations all that Christ had commanded them.