space 4 grace

Theology of children

preachinmama — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 18:05:02 +0000

I am rethinking one of the books I read for ordination requirements: Graced Vulnerability: A Theology of Childhood by David Jensen. Jensen has made a significant contribution to theology in making the important point that childhood is foreign to systematic theology. Indeed, the IVP Dictionary of Biblical Theology, which one would expect to find a theology of childhood, only has the heading “childlessness.” Wow, I have never noticed this before and yet, as the bibliography attests, books within the last five years have begun to address this gap.
As I reflected on my own theology of childhood I read that Jensen mentions one of my own first thoughts, that “Israel valued and welcomed children” because of its understanding of covenant, of which children are explicitly members (2). Indeed, the sign of the covenant is the mark on the baby boy of 8 days. “Throughout the Hebrew Bible, children are seen as blessings for the future, signs of God’s creative intent and faithfulness that surpasses all generations” (3)
However, once we move beyond these basic statements and look in the Scriptures for a theology of sin and how that relates to children, Jensen points out the various ways children have been viewed over the years. He is not comfortable with the traditional understanding of the depravity of humanity, including children because more often that not, children are the victims of sin rather than the perpetrators (ch 4). At times he seems to want to move away from children’s culpability, a direction I am not comfortable with. Yet, the point he makes is that when Jesus takes a child into his arms he is not intent on talking about their “inherent goodness or internal depravity. He simply tells his disciples to welcome children in a gesture of personal hospitality” (91).
What is immediately applicable: care for the vulnerable, the widow, the orphan and stranger. Church is not a gated community, but as a refuge for children but a sanctuary that is still potent with images of God’s holiness. Jensen writes as an advocate and prophet to the church to welcome and protect children from the dangers in their lives.
But the reflections on vulnerability and the gospel were the part of the book that challenged me the most. “A child’s vulnerability is the locus of God’s grace” (ix). This dovetails with my own reflections on Philippians 3:10 and the fellowship of Christ’s suffering. Although human suffering is not redemptive, the consequence of identifying with Christ is the reality that we will suffer. This suffering comes because Christ himself was vulnerable. It is impossible to know Christ and Christ’s power without at the same time accepting his suffering. Our theology easily becomes triumphalist in light of post-resurrection, but the vulnerability of God at the hands of his subjects is ever present in our faith. This IS the heart of Christian faith and children help us accept this.

Jensen, David. Graced Vulnerability: A Theology of Childhood. Cleveland: Pilgrim
Press, 2005.

The Gospel and Exodus

preachinmama — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:58:20 +0000

It is not easy talking about the Exodus on the tenth anniversary of September 11.

The irony that an act of war and trauma is what this passage is about.
God is the Divine Warrior. This is a place where we can feel a little squeamish.
But it is true that the Scriptures present the picture of the universe as a war zone with the present Satanic empire being invaded by the rival kingdom of Jesus.
While a lot of the mainline churches have removed “onward Christian soldiers” preaching of struggle with the powers of darkness are left to the really “out there” folks.
It shouldn’t be like that.
If we shy away from talking about a devil, we are left talking about declaring war against mere concepts like evil or sin.
Where there are no demons we demonize.
And without a clear vision of the concrete forces we as the church are supposed to be aligned against, we find it very difficult to differentiate between enemy combatants and their hostages.
When we see that we are warring against principalities and powers / not the people who are aligned against us, we realize we can live at peace with outsiders-those with different understandings of truth.

God is concerned about these same powers in the Exodus passage.
Only the Devil is interested in enslaving another. And that is what the Egyptians were doing.
And the Lord was purposefully escalating the tension through-out this time.
YHWH was the one picking the fight.
Look at 15:3 The Lord is a warrior, the Lord is his name.
The Egyptians recognized it as they entered the Sea-v. 25 “Let us flee for the Lord is fighting for them against us.”
War in the ancient world was viewed as a sacred undertaking in which the HONOR of the deity was at stake.
The Lord of Hosts.
The warfare view is easy to overlook because of our cultural context (or think of OT)
Even the NT-kingdom of God is a warfare context, Jesus and exorcisms and miracles, storming the gates of hell and the “Christus Victor” view of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
If we desire to be biblical, most of us will need to do some research and become more comfortable with a significant revelation of God’s character: warring against the enemies of all things good and peace.

The Gospel at Ground Zero
The horrors of 9/11 were not unlike those of Good Friday.
Many good thoughts are from Russell Moore dean of school of theology for the Southern Baptist.
This weekend we cannot escape the images. And somehow we try to balance the horror with denial.
Without the blood and bones and explosions, September 11 becomes just an abstraction where we can deny the reality of the grim forces of evil and an Evil One.
Fascinating psychologists who says the dark fairy tales need to be told b/c children have nightmares.
Even children know at a primal level that there is something wild out there. And the stories help them make sense of the chaotic world and their often chaotic selves.
(teachable moment- when I wanted to be angry at son-but I had to teach him about sin in his heart-it is not just other people who are capable of being mean)
We are reminded of what scares us, of what could happen to us too.
And so it is with the Gospel.
Peter-consistently wanting to ignore the trauma
Jesus brings restoration to him-but also presses the trauma further. What Peter fears most-
The shame and torture of crucifixion is precisely what will happen.
Peter will have the kingdom he so longs for, but his immediate future is skull-shaped.
Even as we gather at the table
Even as we admit that we are sinners and deserve condemnation.
Censoring the gospel’s painful realities does not lead to tranquility.
Day of Judgment is coming even as we keep the fear submerged.
In the word of the Cross, God tells us he knows our traumas, our insurgencies our secrets-
AND that He has ALREADY executed them at Golgotha.
We need not fear hell-not b/c there isn’t one-but b/c we are found in Christ. We are free.

Jesus vs. Paul?

preachinmama — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:36:39 +0000

Jesus preached about the kingdom of God, but Paul, also known as the apostle or Saint Paul, was more concerned with justification by faith. Does this mean that they preached different messages? Did they both preach justification-a word we do not even use nowadays. Did they both focus on the kingdom.

Wow- we sure need help here trying to figure out the message of two pivotal people in history-one of them dead and another one alive but unseen.

new digs

preachinmama — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 21:11:32 +0000

Here I am trying out wordpress. I seriously need my daughter here helping me to decide colors and fonts and the visuals. I need to supply the words though. Trying this out.

fair trade & community trade

preachinmama — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:06:27 +0000

Like a lot of Americans I drink coffee and I have decided to switch to a new brew. “Drink coffee do good” is their motto. Land of a Thousand Hills is dedicated to giving working farmers a chance to make a fair wage for their labor, a growing movement of fair trade. Additionally, the effects of genocide still make an impact so the company is working to fill the needs for homes, work tools and orphanages called community trade. I would love to travel to Rwanda to see this in real life. As I purchase their coffee, I am providing a starting point for the Rwandan farmers to begin the process of healing and forgiveness. Check them out at www.drinkcoffeedogood.com

grace/justice

preachinmama — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:04:28 +0000

Wow! It is so wonderful to hear mainstream teachers understand the connection between a person’s grasp and experience of God’s grace and his or her heart for justice and the poor. That is a quote by Keller and I am rejoicing that a solid Reformed pastor is sounding the call. Too often teachers of grace look only at the inward person to the neglect of whole institutions and systemic neglect. It seems I need to read more of Elaine Scary (On Beauty and Being Just) and Nicholas Wolterstorff. He talks about the quartet of the vulnerable: widows, orphans, immigrants and the poor. However, I am not sure I can go as far as Gutierrez who claims God’s preferential option for the poor. I have my path out in front of me. Anyone else want to come along?

The Poor and God’s justice

preachinmama — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:59:29 +0000

Tim Keller is today’s prophet.

Tim Keller: What We Owe the Poor
The pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church says seeking justice is not optional for the person saved by grace.
Interview by Kristen Scharold | posted 12/06/2010 09:23AM

Tim Keller has strong words for people who do not care about the poor: “All I know is, if I don’t care about the poor, if my church doesn’t care about the poor, that’s evil.” The head pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church and author of Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just (Dutton) spoke with New York-based writer Kristen Scharold about why helping the least of these should be every Christian’s mission.

Why do you think generosity is crucial to biblical justice?

I used the term “generous justice” because many people make a distinction between justice and charity. They say that if we give to the poor voluntarily, it’s just compassion and charity. But Job says that if I’m not generous with my money, I’m offending God, which means it’s not an option and it is unjust by definition to not share with the poor. It’s biblical that we owe the poor as much of our money as we can possibly give away. READ MORE.

Making sense of worldviews

preachinmama — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 15:44:17 +0000

I am often thinking about how to get across the importance of understanding the way we see the world. These are the things that make sense to us because we comprehend the way things are by this set of lenses we wear, called a worldview. Well I found this excellent, fun read by Bayard Taylor called Blah, Blah, Blah: Making Sense of the World’s Spiritual Chatter.

Taylor does a good job of making difficult concepts readable by using humor and a canny use of words. He labels Naturalism as What you see is what you get-WYSIWYG. The Haunted worldview is easy to figure out, but he calls Dualism “the dueling Yodas” and monism is “Omnipresent Supergalactic Oneness.” I recommend it for teenagers, young adults and the parents who are trying to get a handle on how different post-moderns think.

pictoral of living water, Jer.2

preachinmama — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:55:54 +0000

This is fun. Click on the picture to see full size.

Idolatry? Really?

preachinmama — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:49:45 +0000

Jer. 2:4-13 Aug. 29, 2010

Do modern problems stem from:

Immigration policy,
economic de-regulation,
not allowing prayer in school,
too much government,
not enough government,
educational standards slipping,
women’s liberation movement…?….

Does anybody talk about

GREED
ARROGANCE
SLOTH
SELFISHNESS
DISRESPECT…….?

Do you find your mind slipping into the categories more like the 1st batch or 2nd?

So, if Jeremiah were alive today, what would he say? Or better put, what do God’s prophets today say our problem is?

Idolatry? Really?We have people worshipping golden statues, burning incense and bowing down….?I’m going to be so bold to tell you now at the beginning of this sermon what I want you to think by the end: Low Anthropology.

Jeremiah 2

Think: 600 years before Christ, alive when the powerful Assyrian city of Nineveh was captured. Jerry saw some horrendous stuff: death of the last Davidic king, rebellion and then the destruction of nation, force-marched to Egypt. Not many would envy him.Who wants to sign up to be a prophet?Jeremiah was from a priestly family living in a village with deep roots in the priestly tradition. This would provide the future prophet with an education suited to his task. No dates in our section: suggests that the chapter is intended to “paint with a broad brush” and to function as a “sampler.” What is the overall thrust of oracles?

People in their totality are rebellious against the Lord.

“My people have committed 2 sins…..”Corporately Israel is accused of having defected from its first love (look at verse 2) in order to pursue “worthless idols,” that is, other deities. Baal, a popular Canaanite deity, is named specifically in verse 8. Also in verse 8 Jeremiah singles out Judah’s leadership for particular criticism. “Priests” had the sacred task of interpreting God’s presence and will among the people and teaching Torah. The word translated as “leaders” is more literally rendered as “shepherds.” God, who is the great Shepherd of his people, demands that the leadership of the people share in this shepherding role. Finally, the “prophets” are singled out for their disobedience in seeking inspiration from Baal rather than the Lord.

“My people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols” (v. 11) and have committed two evils:

They have rejected the Lord and attempted vainly to support themselves (v. 13).How are they supporting themselves? They are building their own means of getting water. The figure is vivid for those in Palestine where rainfall is usually not very abundant and many people through the centuries have had to depend on cisterns. The image of broken cisterns in this verse is telling, since the care of cisterns was a laborious job in the hill country of Palestine, where earthquake tremors occurred periodically. Jeremiah compares the labor-intensive work of repairing cisterns with the idolatry of following other gods, whereas the Lord is a fountain of living water. How powerful then, when addressed to people in this situation. Incredible and utterly absurd that they would leave a constant and life-giving source in order to make a hole in an artificial basin.

Hot, stagnant, polluted: This is the picture of low anthropology.This is the way we are. My people have committed 2 sins……

Why would they do this? Why would we? I hear the cry of God-what wrong have I done? In my mind: to explore the dynamics of gift giving-relationships of unequal partners….

1st-they think they did it themselves. It requires eyes of faith to know that the thing we have really came as a gift from a God who loves us- Many don’t have that faith

2nd People don’t want to be in God’s debt-don’t like the feeling of vulnerability= humbling experience if you realize you didn’t provide for yourself. For kids-ok

3rd Don’t like feeling weak, that God has what they want. God has the life giving water, and we really want it, but we are too afraid to ask or accept it.

4th We fear the terms or conditions; what will God make us do to get what we want? Afraid of losing our dignity-getting disappointed. Lots of rules, humiliation?

Contemporary idolatry, what is it and why did I say this was our fundamental problem? And what makes idols worthless? The short answer is that they are not divine. They cannot solve real problems. Idols are a substitute for the real thing; they may be attractive and appealing to people. Jeremiah’s day was much like ours his contemporaries sought to be religious, as if more religious activities and devotion to more deities would usher in a more secure future. Among most Western Christians, idolatry is just as pernicious as in Jeremiah’s day, but the objects of attachment are more symbolic and subtle in nature. Instead of believing in nothing, they are tempted to believe a little of everything in their search for “solutions.” Technology and individual “do-it-yourself” spirituality are two seductions facing Western Christians. The stock markets of developed countries are good examples of a kind of secular polytheism in the modern world. It appears risky to trust all things to one Lord and more prudent to diversify. It is now common in certain Christian circles to incorporate prayers to the great spirit or the mother goddess and to downplay the uniqueness of the gospel in favor of a more generic religiosity. But what I have been saying up till now puts the bulk of us off the hook. After all I don’t pray to the mother goddess and I am certainly not like the power grabbing person as might be depicted on TV.

Contemporary idolatry as expressed in the average person as expressed here in this room. Most of us are seduced by the idols that group around power: like success, influence and control. Our greatest nightmare is being humiliated and our problem emotion is anger. Some of us are more prone to idolizing approval: we crave affirmation, love & relationships that meet our needs, acceptance. Our greatest nightmare is rejection and our problem emotion is cowardice. Some of us are enticed by comfort: privacy, freedom, and sexual pleasure. Our greatest nightmare is the stress and demands of fulfilling the comfortable life.

And what about the answer?

A legalist approach would be for me to tell you: repent. Just don’t do it. Moralizing. My telling you to change your behavior doesn’t go deep enough. Why do you want: power, or approval of comfort? Another approach would be psychologizing. You don’t see that God loves you as you are, so just rejoice. Believe it. But does this go deep enough either? You are still left with the question: why do I have such feelings of fear, anger or despair when these desires are not being met? The psychologizing approach of “rejoice” doesn’t make it happen either.

Answer lies within the passage: Living water. Do we know anything about living water elsewhere in Scripture? The New Testament builds on the theme of God as a fountain of living water. Jesus informs the Samaritan woman that he can give her “living water … welling up to eternal life” (John 4:10, 14). To any who believe in him, Jesus declares that “streams of living water” will proceed from them (7:38).Gospel approach then, would say both: repent of building your own cisterns-broken cisterns that cannot hold water. Rest in, accept the living water, drinking this living water. To reject his claim is to reject the offer of life that only God can grant. The Lord gives us this chance on earth to flee from the idols/the broken cisterns, and rest in the living water, but one day that option will not be available to us anymore.

Acknowledgements: