The ends of the earth will see the salvation of God.
Isaiah (52:10)

Feel like my soul is beginning to expand
Look into my heart and you will sort of understand.
Bob Dylan, Thunder On The Mountain

My soteriology is expanding; with new eyes I’m seeing big picture salvation.
Brian Zahnd, A Beautiful Life (8/6/05)

What is salvation?

There’s a question for you!

I think most attempts to answer this question tend to shrink salvation — to get it small enough so that a person can possess it; so they can hold on to it like a ticket or put it in their wallet like a kind of laminated license. But the only way to get salvation small enough for you to possess is to reduce it to a few aspects. So that if salvation is reduced to going to heaven when you die, then it’s easy enough to think of it as a ticket or a backstage pass. But that’s like confusing an American passport with America. I can put a passport in my pocket, but I can’t put America in my pocket.

Salvation is not an object you own — it’s a life you enter and live.

Much of my thinking over the past three years has been an attempt to answer the question, what is salvation? I’ve thought about it, meditated on it, prayed about it, talked about it and I’ve read and read and read about it. I’ve told Peri that if I could meet with one historical figure it would be the Apostle Paul and I would ask him one question: What is salvation?

Well, if I may be so bold, I am now ready to answer the question.

Q. What is salvation?
A. It is the kingdom of God.

I’m convinced this is the answer. Not only is it intensely biblical, it is the message of the Bible. The Bible is the story of a world gone wrong and God’s strategy, or as Dallas Willard calls it, the divine conspiracy, to make it right again. God’s strategy or divine conspiracy is the kingdom of heaven. This is salvation.

To use my former analogy: Salvation is not the passport of heaven, salvation is the kingdom of heaven.

And what is the kingdom of God? It’s God’s government by which He will make right a world gone wrong.

So how does one get in on this? Or we might say, how does one get saved?

By rethinking your life, renouncing your allegiance to the false system of the fallen world and transferring your loyalty and allegiance to the crucified and risen King with this confession: Jesus is Lord. Then you begin to learn and live the new way of life by following Jesus with his other followers. This is how you enter the vast expanse of salvation.

Viewing salvation as a vast expanse you enter instead of an object you possess may seem like a subtle distinction for you, but for me it’s been a profound paradigm shift.

So now I answer questions differently than I used to. For example?

Q. Can I be saved without being involved in a local church?
A. A little bit.

Q. Can I be saved without being baptized?
A. A little bit.

Salvation is bigger than what what happens at death.
Salvation is bigger than what happens to you.
Salvation is bigger even than what happens to souls.

Salvation is God’s plan to renovate creation. He’ll do it by the Kingdom He has bestowed upon His dear Son.

All of creation groans for this salvation.
Will all of creation be saved?
All except free will entities who will not to be.

Would a free will entity will not to be saved?
Remember what salvation is — the kingdom of God.
Those who will not to be in God’s kingdom…will not be.

Read this slowly and thoughtfully…

Psalm 2

Why do the nations rage
And the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take counsel together
Against Jehovah
And against His anointed King
They say,
“Let us break their chains
And free ourselves from this slavery.”
The One enthroned in heaven laughs
The Lord scoffs at them
Then He will speak to them in His wrath
And terrify them in His fury
Saying,
“I have placed My chosen King on Zion
My holy hill.”
The King proclaims Jehovah’s decree:
“The Lord said to Me,
‘You are My Son
Today I have begotten You
Ask of Me
And I will give You the nations as Your inheritance
The ends of the earth as Your possession
You shall rule them with a rod of iron
And shatter them like clay pots.'”
Now therefore, you kings, be wise
Be warned, you rulers of the earth
Serve Jehovah with fear
And rejoice with trembling
Kiss the feet of the royal Son
Lest He be angry
And you be destroyed in the midst of your pursuits
When His wrath is kindled but a little
Blessed are all those who take refuge in Him.

SALVATION IS THE KINGDOM GOD!
Personal salvation is your being in it.
The extent of your present experience of salvation is contingent upon the extent of your present experience of the kingdom of God.

The fullness of salvation will come when the kingdom comes fully.
That will happen with the return of the King.
Then the earth, the environment, the economy and redeemed humanity will be saved in every aspect.

In the mean time we do all we can to move in that direction.
Praying…
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth
As it is in heaven

This is our primary prayer for salvation.

SALVATION IS THE KINGDOM COME!

Amen and Maranatha!

BZ

____________________________________________________________________

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday!

This Friday night I will be preaching a message entitled:
“Our History: From Pentecost to Present”
A one hour overview of church history.

(Of course it is an impossible task, but nevertheless I think it will be very helpful to you.)

_____________________________________________________________________

“The goal of human life is not death, but resurrection.” -Karl Barth

An online acquaintance said this:

Pardon me while I think out loud, as it were. I had occasion last night to sit and ponder death. Within 20 minutes I discovered it had impacted two people that are a part of my and Dryad’s life.

There is a woman in our neighborhood we call the tamale lady. Every couple of weeks she comes around selling pork, beef and chicken tamales that she has made by hand, 7$ a dozen. There are delicious; we buy them almost every time she comes. I hadn’t seen her in several weeks, then last night she showed up the usual smile absent from her face, but carrying the familiar bag. I asked her how she had been, and told her we’d missed her and worried for her, which was true. She said she hadn’t been in the mood, or had the time in a while. Then she pointed to the sky and said,”My husband, he go away April 26.” Tears leaped up to my eyes, all I could say was I was sorry. We exchanged tamales and money, and she walked off a sad smile on her face.

He then went on to make several thoughtful observations and closed with this:

Overlaid all of this is the fact that God Himself promises, there will be no more fear, no more pain, no more grief and suffering, and that the wounds we carried will be healed and soothed by His own hand. How can I not desire that place? My true home, in time to come, where I will have all of time to explore God’s handiwork to my great delight and contentment, and in so doing worship Him in a way I was made to do so, with all of those who, throughout history, have loved Him for his great mercy and compassion.

Now, let me share with you my response:

Some random thoughts inspired by your out loud thinking:

This world is not my home.

Do you know who first thought and said that? The Gnostics. The first Christian heretics. Gnosticism was a dualism heresy; a kind of Greek re-working of Buddhist dualism.

This world is my home! And the blessed hope is not going to heaven, but God setting right a world gone wrong. Heaven is a interim stop between death and the resurrection and new creation. The hope of the Gospel is fulfilled in the resurrection. Yes, I believe in life after death. But more importantly, I believe in life after life after death. In other words, I’m no Platonist or neo-Gnostic satisfied with a disembodied state in the realm of ethereal forms — I am a Christian longing for the resurrection of the dead and a world set to rights!

One of the tenants of Gnosticism that survived the various councils was the doctrine of divine impassibility. It is a doctrine that says God is impassive and derives no pain or pleasure from the action of beings outside Himself; i.e. God is without emotion. This philosophy was originally developed by Plato and Aristotle and then co-opted by the early church fathers who were prone to be far more Greco-Christian than Judeo-Christian. Origen, Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin all believed in divine impassibility. In fact, one could say that all of the church fathers, medieval theologians and Reformed theologians (with the exception of Luther) believed in divine impassibility. The notion that God is impassive, emotionless and cannot suffer was the orthodox position until the 20th century.

Suffering.

That’s the issue here.

Gnosticism was largely an attempt to develop a doctrine where all suffering could be eliminated. It plotted a course very similar to that of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) involving attaining a state of detachment (impassivity). Of course to develop a doctrine wherein there is the potential escape from all suffering, you must make freedom form suffering an attribute of God. Thus, divine impassibility or the God who cannot suffer.

As I said, divine impassibility was widely accepted by theologians until the 20th century. But today divine impassibility is almost entirely rejected. What happened?

The Holocaust.

The Holocaust forced theologians to reconsider divine impassibility. Could God really be impassive to such horrific human suffering? The instinctive answer is, no.

The other effect the Holocaust had on theological thought was it forced the church to face its tacit anti-Semitism. In so doing, theologians “discovered” that Jesus was Jewish and that Christianity has Jewish roots. Of course the God of the Jewish scriptures (the Old Testament) was never impassive and emotionless; the God of Israel was so connected to His people in covenant that He suffered with them and experienced a wide range of emotions. It was Plato and Aristotle that gave the notion of divine impassibility to the church, not Moses or Paul. And the bottom line is Plato is not a prophet and Aristotle is not an apostle.

The doctrine of divine impassibility died in the Holocaust.

Writing from his Nazi prison cell a short time before his execution a 38 year old Lutheran pastor and theologian by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer said this:

Only the suffering God can help.

What help can an emotionless God who cannot suffer be to a suffering people?

But God does suffer…with us and for us.

By His wounds we are healed.

As far as I’m concerned the doctrine of divine impassibility can be dashed to pieces with the shortest verse in the Bible:

Jesus wept.

God has suffered. God does suffer. God suffers because He wills to love. God is not impassive, God is love.

Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate, Elie Wiesel, has often said, “The opposite of love is not hatred, but indifference.”

God is not indifferent, God is love.

Elie Wiesel tells of three Jews being hung while he was at Auschwitz; two men and a youth. The two men died quickly, but the youth hung by his neck for half an hour. While being forced to watch this horrible spectacle a voice behind Elie asked, “Where is God?” A little while later the voice again asked, “Where is He?” Elie answered, “He is here, he is on the gallows.”

In a mystical way Elie Wiesel is right. God has hung on a gallows. The gallows of the cross. He suffered and died upon the gallows of the cross.

And Jesus rose from the dead. Death is defeated. Death is not the end. Death is not the death that used to be. And this is the hope I have for the world: The resurrection of the dead the dawn of a new creation. And quite honestly, I know of no other hope. This is the hope for all the “tamale ladies” of this broken world.

Yes, the problem of pain is a problem for the theist. But it is just as big a problem for the atheist. The atheist has to explain why there is a sense of justice in the first place and why Dostoevsky’s Ivan Karamazov is not right in saying, “Without God all things are permitted.” No one really wants to live in a world were “all things are permitted” anarchists be damned (and they are — Satan himself being the ultimate anarchist!). In a world without God what is the foundation for justice? Or why is there even the idea of justice? An ontological argument for justice leads to the Ontological Argument for God. Thus the problem of pain for the atheist.

I’ve thought much about the philosophical implications of death a lot over the past few years and I have arrived at this conclusion: You have two honest options…

Jesus Christ or Friedrich Nietzsche.

The will to power or the will to love.

God is dead or God has risen from the dead.

The Superman of the Son of Man.

The Ubermensch or the Incarnation.

Anything in between is either shoddy thinking or a cowardly cop out.

I’ve made my choice.

I choose Jesus.
I choose the Son of Man.
I choose the Incarnation.
I choose the will to love.
I choose the God who died.
I choose the God who rose again.
I choose the God who suffers.
I choose the God who heals.

This is my hope!

Maranatha!

BZ

What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?

This is the question raised by the second century church leader, Tertullian.

What does Athens as the center of Greek philosophy have to do with Jerusalem as the center of Jewish revelation?

What do the Greek philosophers have to do with the Jewish prophets?

These are important questions, and not just historically; they have important implications for today.

Tertullian’s question should not be understood as, “What does thought have to do with theology?” or “What does philosophy have to do with Christianity?” Thought and theology are inseparable and philosophy simply means “the love of wisdom” and the Bible clearly calls us to love wisdom.

Rather, Tertullian’s rhetorical question has to do with what is the foundation and final authority for divine knowledge?

I believe Tertullian’s question could be expanded in this manner: What do the Greek gods have to do with the God of Israel and when push comes to shove who do you side with, Plato or Moses?

For all the appreciation I have for the early church fathers, I can’t countenance their man-crush on Plato. It really does seem that they wanted to make Plato a prophet and Aristotle an apostle. They were not.

Pre-existent souls…Divine Impassibility (the doctrine that God is impassive, emotionless and incapable of suffering)…over-emphasis on heaven…tacit belief that physical bodies are evil…sexuality diminishes spirituality…this world is not our home, etc. These are all ideas derived from Greek philosophers that are in opposition to revelation given by the Jewish prophets.

Judeo-Christian or Greco-Christian?

That’s the question.

The answer should be Judeo-Christian, but for much of the church the reality has been Greco-Christian.

Of course not everything from the Greek philosophers and poets is wrong. That’s not the point. But can we discover the true nature of God and ultimate reality by philosophical thought alone or is divine revelation required to get the ball rolling? In other words, is a philosopher enough or do you need a prophet?

Answer: You need revelation. You need a prophet.

Rene Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.”

And this is the foundation for empiricism.

But Moses records God as saying, “I AM THAT I AM.”

And this is the foundation for revelation.

These are two different beginning points:
From inside your own head: “I think, therefore I am.”
From external revelation: “I AM THAT I AM.”

Is empiricism enough to give you all the knowledge you need or is revelation with corresponding faith required?

At this point let me again quote Tertullian: “I believe because it is absurd.”

The relationship between faith and absurdity was especially appreciated by Pascal and Kierkegaard — so don’t give me any lip about belief in the absurd being merely a cover for ignorance (because we all know that Pascal and Kierkegaard are both way smarter than anyone reading this blog).

The Greek philosophers can make valuable contributions to thought, but they have nothing to contribute to revelation, and revelation is where we must begin in the realm of the knowledge of God.

In general, we need to think more Jewish and less Greek.
More like Paul than Plato.
More like David than Homer.

Especially in these categories:
Heaven/Earth
Spirit/Body
Determinism/Choice
Death/Resurrection

We are looking for the New Jerusalem, not the New Athens.

BZ

PS

Various thoughts:

I like the ESV (English Standard Version).

It’s time for me to get in mountain shape. I need to push it pretty hard beginning today!

My big climb for this summer is McHenrys Peak via Stoneman Pass. Generally considered the most difficult 3rd class peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Here are some photos from my online climbing counselor, Smudge:

McHenrys Peak

Another view of McHenrys
With Longs and Chief’s Head in the background

Just below Stoneman Pass
That’s Longs Peak in the background. A few days earlier I will lead a group of guys up Longs Peak — my ninth climb of Longs. I charge them all a dollar…that way I can call myself a professional mountain guide. Ha!

Looking down the south ridge

I do love the mountains!

Song in my head today:

High Water (For Charley Patton)
by Bob Dylan

High water risin’ – risin’ night and day
All the gold and silver are being stolen away
Big Joe Turner lookin’ East and West
From the dark room of his mind
He made it to Kansas City
Twelfth Street and Vine
Nothing standing there
High water everywhere

High water risin’, the shacks are slidin’ down
Folks lose their possessions – folks are leaving town
Bertha Mason shook it – broke it
Then she hung it on a wall
Says, “You’re dancin’ with whom they tell you to
Or you don’t dance at all.”
It’s tough out there
High water everywhere

I got a cravin’ love for blazing speed
Got a hopped up Mustang Ford
Jump into the wagon, love, throw your panties overboard
I can write you poems, make a strong man lose his mind
I’m no pig without a wig
I hope you treat me kind
Things are breakin’ up out there
High water everywhere

High water risin’, six inches ‘bove my head
Coffins droppin’ in the street
Like balloons made out of lead
Water pourin’ into Vicksburg, don’t know what I’m going to do
“Don’t reach out for me,” she said
“Can’t you see I’m drownin’ too?”
It’s rough out there
High water everywhere

Well, George Lewis told the Englishman, the Italian and the Jew
“You can’t open your mind, boys
To every conceivable point of view.”
They got Charles Darwin trapped out there on Highway Five
Judge says to the High Sheriff,
“I want him dead or alive
Either one, I don’t care.”
High Water everywhere

The Cuckoo is a pretty bird, she warbles as she flies
I’m preachin’ the Word of God
I’m puttin’ out your eyes
I asked Fat Nancy for something to eat, she said, “Take it off the shelf –
As great as you are a man,
You’ll never be greater than yourself.”
I told her I didn’t really care
High water everywhere

I’m getting’ up in the morning – I believe I’ll dust my broom
Keeping away from the women
I’m givin’ ’em lots of room
Thunder rolling over Clarksdale, everything is looking blue
I just can’t be happy, love
Unless you’re happy too
It’s bad out there
High water everywhere

Here’s a thought: Stop using the Bible.

Don’t stop reading it. Don’t stop thinking it. Don’t stop speaking it.

But please stop using it.

But that is exactly what many in the evangelical world are prone to do with the Bible…make it practical and useful. Like a tool.

The Bible as an appliance.

Keep it around in a handy location until you need something done. Then fetch your Bible like a blender from the cabinet.

It slices, it dices, it makes life easy.

Oh, yeah, we even advertise our teaching of the Bible in this manner:

“PRACTICAL SERMONS”

Because we all know that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Paul’s revelation concerning Israel in Romans and John’s prophetic poetry in Revelation are all very “practical.”

(You do know sarcasm when you see it, don’t you?)

Someone else tells me “the Bible is the owner’s manual for life.”

Well, isn’t that cute. Of course there’s no truth in it whatsoever. I’ve got lots of owner’s manuals — for just about every appliance I own — and none of them read anything like the Bible! (When was the last time you saw an owner’s manual full of prophecy and poetry?)

The Bible is nothing like a manual.
It’s an epic poem telling a story.
And the story’s not about you.
The story is about Emmanuel.

Using the Bible. There’s something very American about that. We Americans have a compulsion to make everything practical and useful — even God! We want to domesticate God so that we can harness Him to our agenda. We don’t want a God who is wild (like Aslan) — because wild can be dangerous (and very impractical). You can use what is domesticated.

But you cannot worship what is domesticated.

A pagan might worship a lion or leopard. But I doubt that even the most idolatrous pagan would worship a blender. It’s practical.

OK, so you’re still wondering, what’s wrong with using the Bible?

What’s wrong is it presumes that you know what needs to be done and that all you need is the means by which to get it done. What’s wrong is that it leaves you in charge of your own spiritual formation. What’s wrong is that it ultimately makes the word of God subservient to self.

Think about Luke’s account of the Temptation of Christ. In the first and second temptations Jesus counters Satan with, “it is written.” But in the third temptation, Satan says to Jesus upon the pinnacle of the temple:

If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written:
“He will command His angels concerning you,
To guard you,
On their hands they will bear you up,
Lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

If Jesus was “using” the Bible, he could have seized this promise, made practical use of it, applied to his life…and leaped from the temple.

And sinned.

Instead, Jesus simply replied:

It is said, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”

No, we must not use the Bible as a tool to attain our own desired outcome, because in doing so we will be able to justify everything from tempting God with flying leaps to betraying the Gospel with genocidal crusades.

Instead we must present ourselves before the scriptures and allow them to form us. Allow them to form us, inform us, transform us. Allow them to say to us whatever they want to say irrespective of our wants and desires. Submit yourself to the scriptures instead of using Bible verses as fiats so that God can be taught to fetch.

Do you ever wonder just what God requires?
You think He’s just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires.

Here’s what you should do. Present yourself before the word of God day by day and let it so saturate your being that you don’t have to try to “use” the scriptures, but instead the scriptures have so formed your thinking and speaking that you find yourself being transformed by a renewed mind and moving mountains by spoken words — but not words that you use as a tool, but words that have formed you and become a part of you.

Is there a difference?

The difference between Jesus and the Pharisees.

Think about it.

I’ll say more Friday night.

BZ

PS

Peri and I have been married for 27 years today.

I can’t imagine doing life any other way than as brianandperi.

Walter Brueggemann in his book The Prophetic Imagination talks about the paradigm of “Achievable Satiation.”

Let’s define terms.

satiate: to satisfy desire to excess

We live in a age committed to the idea of achievable satiation.

Proverbs says…

There are three things that are never satisfied,
Yea, four that never say “Enough!”
The grave
The barren womb
The thirsty desert
The blazing fire

I think we can now add a fifth:
Our generation in search of satisfaction.

Seeking to satisfy desire to excess. That’s our age in a nutshell!

The present paradigm of achievable satiation has redefined our notion of what it is to be human, and it has done so to all of us. It has created a culture concerned only with self-satisfaction.

And the church has not been exempt. We have been affected in many ways. For example: The practical denial of history and community.

We have denied our own history to the point that we are a generation of the church suffering from collective amnesia. And in denying our history we also deny our future. We have so enthroned the present in the idolatrous “NOW” that a promised future, delayed but certain, is unthinkable.

And we have denied our community. The radical emphasis on self within the corrupt paradigm of achievable satiation (Babylon!) has so fostered individualism that it has denied the very concept of community that calls us to care.

Achievable satiation is fed by a management mentality that believes there are no mysteries to honor, only problems to be solved. There are no heroic battles to be won, only systems to be managed.

Achievable satiation is endorsed by a consumer Christianity which believes God has no business other than maintaining our standard of living and in every way making our lives as comfortable as possible.

Achievable satiation. It really is the religion of the day. The official religion of the empire.

But here’s the kicker. Satiation is derived from a Latin word that means…get this…sad! Satiation comes from the word meaning sad. That’s sad! We are a culture committed to a paradigm of satisfaction that is designed to inevitably make us sad.

And I can’t help but be reminded of the hook line from Sheryl Crow’s song, If It Makes You Happy. (Pardon the mild expletive, but it helps make the point.)

If it makes you happy
It can’t be that bad
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad?

Good question, Sheryl.

The generation committed to the paradigm of achievable satiation is not going to find achievable satisfaction but achievable sadness.

(And of course you can all quote Mick Jagger at this point.)

So Sheryl observes that it just makes you sad and Mick confesses he can’t get no satisfaction. Perhaps we should look beyond the observations and confessions of rock stars and consider what Jesus said:

“If anyone wants to be my follower you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and the sake of the Good News, you will find your true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world [achievable satiation] but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Mark 8:34-37, NLT)

Achievable Satiation?

No.

Take up the cross.

Achievable Crucifixion.

Achievable Resurrection!

Lead on O King Eternal!

BZ

Some thoughts about creation and covenant…

Creation and Covenant. These are the two primary ways in which God is known. In creation we catch the first hint of God, though it’s mysterious and vague. In covenant God is revealed in specific ways to a specific people. God’s sovereignty is established in creation and His redemption is found in covenant.

Psalm 19 is divided into the dual themes of creation and covenant.

Psalm 19:1-6 Creation
(Notice the references to nature and creation; e.g. heavens, skies, day and night, the sun.)

The heavens tell of the glory of God.
The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship.
Day after day they continue to speak;
Night after night they make him known.
They speak without a sound or a word;
Their voice is silent in the skies;
Yet their message has gone out to all the earth,
And their words to all the world.
The sun lives in the heavens
Where God placed it.
It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom
After his wedding.
It rejoices like a great athlete
Eager to run the race.
The sun rises at one end of the heavens
And follows its course to the other end.
Nothing can hide from its heat.

Psalm 19:7-14 Covenant
(Notice the references to the Law — the foundation of the Old Covenant; e.g. law, decree, commandment)

The law of the Lord is perfect,
Reviving the soul.
The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy,
Making wise the simple.
The commandments of the Lord are right,
Bringing joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are clear,
Giving insight to life.
Reverence for the Lord is pure,
Lasting forever.
The laws of the Lord are true;
Each one is fair.
They are more desirable than gold,
Even the finest gold.
They are sweeter than honey,
Even honey dripping from the comb.
They are a warning to those who hear them;
There is great reward for those who obey them.
How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?
Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
Keep me from deliberate sins!
Don’t let them control me.
Then I will be free of guilt
And innocent of great sin.
May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart
Be pleasing to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Notice that what the sun does in creation the law does in the soul: brings light. And both the sun (creation) and the law (covenant) are related to great joy.

You will also notice that the final thought of Psalm 19 is about redemption. God’s sovereignty is established in creation but His redemption is found in covenant.

The more connected to nature a society is, the more there is an a priori sense of God’s sovereignty. It is only where man creates an artificial, industrial, technological society that people lose their sense of obligation to God or the gods. The atheist is the child who spent too much time indoors.

I love God’s creation.
I’m at home in it.
It is my home.
It’s in my bones.
I am star dust.

But I am animated star dust. And more than that, I have the breath of God in me so that I can know and interact with the Creator. I am a synthesis of heaven and earth. I am an interface between the heavens and the earth. To walk in a conscious and interactive awareness of God in the garden of creation is what I was uniquely designed to do. To hike and pray in the mountains may be the holiest thing I do.

Adam was the son of God in creation.
Abraham was the son of God in covenant.

God chose Abraham’s family to undo the sin of Adam’s family. But, while Abraham’s family was the solution, they were also part of the problem. They were sinners also.

From Adam’s family came the Gentile nations of the fallen world.

From Abraham’s family came the nation of Israel chosen to be God’s agent of redemption.

But though Israel did bring a measure of light and justice to the world through the Law and the Prophets, by in large they failed in their mission to be God’s redemptive community.

So the Son of God took the role of Israel upon himself.
Emmanuel took the role of the Servant of God.
(This is one of the primary prophetic themes of Isaiah.)

Isaiah 53 prophesies the suffering, sin-bearing servant:
My righteous Servant will justify many
For He will bear all their sins

Isaiah 54 prophesies a new covenant:
For the mountains may depart and the hills disappear,
But even then I will remain loyal to you
My covenant of blessing will never be broken
Says the Lord, who has mercy on you.

Isaiah 55 prophesies a new creation:
Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow
Where briers grew, myrtles will sprout up
This miracle will bring great honor to the Lord’s name
It will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.

And of course this is what Jesus did in his redemptive work as God’s suffering servant.

In the Upper Room at the last supper he announced the new covenant.

In the Upper Room on Easter night he breathed on his disciples to confer new creation.

So that the Gospel is all about the new creation and the new covenant giving birth to the new kingdom, the new Israel, the new humanity.

More of the Big Picture of the Big Thing!

(It’s important to keep working on getting the big picture or you will compartmentalize the Bible into an anthology of unrelated moral truths and wise sayings from which it is impossible to make a coherent story. Never forget that the Bible is telling one big story!)

“Christianity is not about religion — it’s about humanity, and making it as God intended it to be.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer (20th century German theologian)

“Christianity is an entirely new way of being human.”
-Maximus the Confessor (7th century bishop)

“The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”
-Irenaeus (2nd century church father)

“Now I’m going to ride my motorcycle through God’s great creation.”
-Brian Zahnd (21st century pastor)

Babylon is fallen, baby
It’s haunted by hate birds
I’m talking about the United States of Babylon
The American Dream gone bad
Somebody change the channel!
It’s turned into a malevolent nightmare
In the land of the free and the home of the…

A is for Addicted
B is for Bored
C is for Consumer

You get the idea.

When success is equated with excess
The ambition for excess wrecks us
(A swift kick from Switchfoot)

And so we’re lost in space
(Danger, Will Robinson!)
My space, cyber space
Lonely place, lost grace

Most are just sad and empty
But some turn bad, and what was it?
“Just plain mean”
And so, mister, a sister (our sister) cries,
“He made the world weep”

A generation ago
Four dead in Ohio
It made you mad
You could protest
Even write a song

But 32 in Virginia?
You can’t write a song
You can only weep
32 lost and wept over by those beyond console
And the thirty-third lost to the black hole
The black hole that took over his soul

Hell

Heaven is not a distant place
Heaven is a different dimension
Heaven is closer than you think
Heaven is closer than your next breath
Heaven is a kingdom of a different kind
Heaven’s kingdom has come
To a thin place near you

A thin place
The interface between God’s space and my space
The sacred space of God’s grace

Hope

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
Audacious hope subverting the tyranny of the status quo
Absurd hope almost too embarrassing to talk about
Daring hope challenging the grandiose pretension of the present
Divine hope that alone can enable us to smile upon the future
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Repent, the beginning is near!

-Blind Man at the Gate