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Think back to yesterday. (It seems so
long ago!) What did you do with your day? How did you decide what to do? Was it
a good day? What criteria did you use to decide? So, how does this relate to the Godstuff? Well, the bible offers us a good picture (or worldview), but to be honest I think we struggle to see how this is actually relevant to us on a daily basis – this is not often what we use to make sense of life as we experience it. But it doesn’t need to be this way. I like NT Wright’s analogy, likening the bible to a Shakespearean play that is missing the last Act. Rather than have someone else re-write the last Act to complete the play, you choose to get a cast of actors who are familiar with Shakespeare and have them immerse themselves in the previous Acts. Then they are told to go and improvise the final Act, working it out for themselves. If we can immerse ourselves in the major ‘Acts’ of the bible – Creation, Fall, Redemption, and the predicted Future Hope, we can be those improvising actors, who are working out the missing Act for ourselves. These major ‘Acts’ can help us make sense of life – where we have come from, who we are, and where we are heading. And strangely enough, I believe we can see all the aspects of the big themes (or ‘Acts’) of the bible playing themselves out even in just one of our ordinary days. When we start to see how the ‘small’ story of my life is connected to the ‘big’ story of God, we are a long way towards integrating faith and life…and the ‘lights’ start to really come on. Over the next few emails I’d like to look at each of these themes (Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Future Hope) in more detail to help us make better connections with The Story. But until then, may your worldview (or at least the coffee) get you through the day. Issue 2 'In the beginning God created' On Sunday I went to the beach with the kids and together we built the best sandcastle ever! (well, we thought it was good anyway) We built it in the full knowledge that in a few hours it would be destroyed, either by the tide, an enthusiastic toddler or a passing dog. And yet that did not slow us down in our attempt to create a well-structured castle of beauty. It doesn't make sense, really. Why bother when it will only be destroyed and our efforts wasted? The answer for me has to do with us being a 'chip off the old block': God made you and me in the image of God. At the very beginning we are told "God created", He started with raw material that was formless and empty and dark and he set about creating a world that was beautiful, functional, well-balanced and relational. And just consider the job titles that God could put on his business card: architect, engineer, artist, landscape designer, vet, microbiologist, astronomer, gardener, project manager, genetic engineer(!), to name a few. So we are only being true to our human nature (and 'God-likeness') when we create. But we don't just create for our own benefit; we also create as part of what God wants to do in the world. When God made Adam & Eve he called them to work with him. God made the garden but his co-workers were to 'work it and take care of it' in order to see the growth continue. God made the animals but the co-workers had the job of naming them (without names the animals would not be complete). In true power-sharing style, God gives us significant creative work to do that is a part of God's ongoing creative acts in the world. And God is interested in the details. So when you cook dinner, tidy your room, sing a song, complete a work project, write a letter, enjoy time with a friend, organise a party, wash your hair, pull out a weed or feed the cat in a profound way you are participating with God in making a world that is beautiful, functional, well-balanced and relational. That's why you get that 'satisfied feeling' when you do these things. It's crucial you make this connection. So keep doing random acts of beauty and creativity. They are not wasted! This is the stuff God's on about, and together with God you share in the important ongoing work of creation. enjoy! Issue 3 and then the wheel fell off
Creation, Fall, Redemption, and our
Future Hope are the big themes of our story. This week is the Fall…
"When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised they were naked…" Genesis 3:6 And I always thought fruit was meant to be good for you. Anyway, Genesis 3 tells us how ‘badness’ entered into our world. Things started well. God gave Adam & Eve a job to do (to take care of the garden), he gave them lots of freedom ("you are free to eat from any tree in the garden") but he also threw in a limitation ("but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil"). There was no explanation as to why they’d die if they ate it. That was just part of the deal. One day a snake came along and threw in a doubt: "Did God really give you that limitation for your benefit? Surely he’s just keeping something good back from you." Here’s the crunch: Would they trust that God was doing things for their best interests or would they ‘break free’ and determine their own boundaries? Option B seemed good at the time, but the consequences were disastrous. They placed themselves in the driver’s seat of this thing called ‘life’ but they didn’t have an instruction manual, they didn’t know where they were going, and they didn’t have the ability to drive. They thought they could do it on their own. They were wrong. Total collapse soon followed: within themselves, with their relationships with others, with their abuse of the world and with their life with God. The harmony, beauty and balance of creation continually gets marred by guilt, fear and chaos. Through the ages, this ‘family likeness’ has been passed on to us. I live with the consequences every day – being fearful that something nasty might happen to me; treating people as objects; being miserly and unsharing towards those who could do with help. This is just the tip of the iceberg. And I’m probably at my most dangerous when I think I’m not actually doing too bad. From within each of us there is a poisonous gas leak just waiting for a match. When the right opportunity comes along to meet my corrupted desire…I’m sure I would surprise myself as to how low I would go. The Fall is a crippling disease that slowly kills us from the inside out. We are all infected. Until we can grasp the gravity of this, the so-called ‘good news’ makes no sense at all. But this is not the end of the story. There is good news… Issue 4 and God said 'Let there be life (take 2)' Creation, Fall, Redemption, and our Future Hope are the big themes of our
story. This is Redemption day… hey there Last time we looked at the Fall, where brokenness was the dominant theme: a brokenness within each person, with relationships with other people, with abuse of the world and with life with God. The story was looking bleak: "The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain" (Gen 6:6). Everything was pretty much stuffed. But amazingly the story didn’t end there. For some reason, God had not given up on people. He resolved to restore the relationships and fix what was broken, at whatever personal cost to him. To make it work God had to absorb the pain and this is what it meant for Jesus – God himself – to die in the most humiliating of ways. Suddenly, we’re given a second chance. Isaiah likened our position to being blind captives sitting in the darkness of the dungeons. But God stepped in and began the process of saving, recycling, healing, ransoming, reconciling, re-creating, and bringing peace to us! We have been redeemed. This is no small thing; we are new people. God lives in us (whether we feel it on any particular day or not) so we have hope for today and the future. Therefore, it seems to me that a dominant theme for our lives today should be this redeeming characteristic. We encounter brokenness every single day of our lives – in our families, amongst neighbours and friends, at workplaces, in our communities and national institutions. In small and big ways we need to work with God to restore life out of the chaos and brokenness we meet. Maybe it’s taking the time to hang out with a lonely friend; or helping a neighbour fix his vandalised fence; or joining Greenpeace and sending anti-whaling messages to the Japanese; or saying sorry to the family member you screamed at this morning. All these things will cost us personally and to some extent require us to absorb some pain in order that we may be part of the process of bringing restoration. But surely God must do a little jig when he sees us getting involved with him in this great work. The lesson from God is that nothing is so broken that it can’t be fixed. As long as there is life, things can be redeemed. In everyday ways, you can live out this redeeming characteristic, bringing the beginnings of hope and restoration to those who need it. Why not start today? The last of the 4 big themes of our story is the Finale - our Future Hope. Game over. The great winding up of
everything. Judgement day. The start of New Life. But is it? I actually think this must be one of the least thought of realities amongst Christians I know. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that we don’t believe in the resurrection and coming of God’s New World Order. It’s just that, for me (and maybe you), I think of the coming ‘Judgement Day’ as something that will happen, but probably not in my lifetime – therefore I don’t really think about it much or live with it as a fixed event on my calendar. And since I don’t live with great misery, despair or the closeness of death staring me in the face, I don’t tend to focus on the Hope of a new and better life (this one’s not that bad). It becomes easy to believe in God while at the same time living like everyone else who doesn’t. But the reality is that there is a brick wall coming our way called ‘the end’. And if it is true, then it really places things like fame, money, job titles, new houses, overseas trips and ‘winning’ in a whole new light. Not that these things are necessarily bad, but how we use them can be. If I really believed in God’s Day of winding things up, I think I would hold my possessions more lightly; I’d share more. I would be less interested in making sure I was better than my peers/rivals/competitors and more interested in helping them and working with them. I’d take more time to talk with the people in my world – really talk, not just fluff around continually with superficial one-liners. I’d sit and enjoy just being in the company of my family and good friends. I’d be more honest with people, telling them what I think and what I believe to be true, rather than just spinning them a line that I know they want to hear. And I couldn't in good conscience be backward or totally quiet about my faith with those around me. What about you? If you really
believed it, would you be happy to live like you do today? Now that the World Cup is all but over, let’s return to see how the major biblical themes of our story can help us in our corner of the world today Over the last wee while we’ve looked at the ‘structural pillars’ of our biblical story – creation, fall, redemption, and future hope. It’s good theory, and it’s great to have a framework, but how can this make any difference to us today? We talked earlier about the bible being like a Shakespearean play missing an Act, with us as the ‘improvising actors’. As we draw from the other Acts (Creation, Fall, Redemption, and the predicted Future Hope), our aim is to work out the missing Act for ourselves. So we look at Creation, and get a glimpse of how things were meant to be originally. We contrast this with the Fall, which introduces brokenness into our story. (When we take these two ‘Acts’ together it helps explain why we are such a mixture of beauty, harmony, creativity, selfishness, meaninglessness and corruption.) Then God steps in with the defining ‘Act’ of Redemption through Jesus. This sets the tone and direction for the rest of the Play. God resolved to restore and re-create life out of the chaos and brokenness in the world. "The Kingdom of God is here!" said Jesus, but the restoration is not complete until the final Act, our Future Hope. Our Story is lived out between the Redemption and the Future Hope. Our Act began with Scene1: the early church (in the book of Acts). There have been many scenes since then. But we have finally reached the stage and it is now our turn to improvise. Nice analogy, but lets get practical. Below are a number of somewhat random issues that we may encounter in our everyday lives. I have tried to show how the above framework can be used to help us decide how we could ‘improvise’. Because I’ve done this as quite a quick exercise, my analysis is pretty simple – and maybe even simplistic. But that’s okay because hopefully it will give you an idea how it works. You can always put more work into it and draw out more detail from specific biblical stories that show these themes. The challenge for you is to take ONE of your own issues and see if you can use this framework to come up with a course of action that is consistent with Our Story. Good luck! Glen
EXAMPLE ISSUES
Academic Study: Creation – made like God with capacity to think God gave command to rule & care for creation - studies help us do this more effectively Fall – rather than working together, seek dominion over others - can result in unhealthy competitiveness & rationale for achieving Redemption - "Through him all things were made..in him was life and this life was the light of people. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it" Jn 1:3-5 - at the root of all subject matters is God, but too often his place in knowledge is not understood. see also Jn 5:39 A healthy submitting to God is important Ecc 12:1. Jesus who knew how important he was opted use whatever he had in order to serve others (Mk 10:45; John 13; Phil 2:5-11) Future Hope - "now I know in part; then I shall know fully" 1Co13:12 - we will not have any more questions but will know everything at the end Possible Action: study in humility and wonder, not seeking to ‘master’ a subject out of pride, but looking to learn in order to help you take your place in society as one who serves others. Share what you learn with others even if it may mean your ‘competitors’ (ie fellow students) benefit from your knowledge lunch: Creation – in Garden of Eden God provided good things to eat; people given meaningful job of looking after garden, and therefore co-working with God to provide food for themselves. Fall – we are lazy (don’t want to work to make our lunch) and liable to want to eat an unbalanced diet (eg eat most fast foods). Money spent on this could be put to better use (note also all the environmental issues associated with multinational fast food companies). Some don’t take a lunch break, thereby failing to benefit from God-given rest, and perhaps showing ‘work’ to have too dominant a place in their life. (Israelites in desert given Manna to eat but if didn’t collect it early it would disappear – if don’t take God’s provision at right time it goes). For others lunch is purely functional (fuel for body) rather than an opportunity for relationship – thereby diminishing our humanity. Redemption – people who can’t make their lunch (there are some good reasons) could choose to buy it from a café promoting healthy eating; others could occasionally get involved in soup kitchens providing lunches for those in real need; use your lunch break to promote relationship – choose to eat with others rather than alone at your desk. Many of Jesus’ interactions with people happened around food. Future Hope – ‘whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God’ 1Cor 10:31. Jesus gives parables of the End being like a Wedding Feast Possible Action: choose to make your lunch at least once a week and/or to have fast foods no more than once a week or choose to buy your lunch from a ‘worthy’ lunch café. Resolve to take a lunch break as a daily discipline and use it to spend some time with others. Fashion accessories Creation – in the beginning God ‘the Artist’ created beautiful harmonies of colours and shapes – his world was more than just functional. People were also given unique individual characteristics and flair. Fall – beauty gets marred by excesses eg extremes today of face lifts attempting to retain beauty but in reality creating ugliness (Michael Jackson, Cher?); excessive emphasis on appearance over substance/personality; fashion accessories become social class barriers because of cost – creating competitiveness and judgmental attitudes based on appearance; items bought in the West at the expense of sweat shop workers in Asia Redemption - Jesus challenged prevailing social system - woman with bleeding (Mk 5) made to feel human again both by Jesus treating her with dignity and his healing her; Woman with the expensive perfume scoffed at by others but Jesus vindicated her using this expense on him Mk 14. Jesus teaching on clean and unclean based on the heart not outward appearances Mk 7; also the place of trusting God for these things Mat 6:25ff Future Hope – God will restore beauty and dignity to one and all. Difference will be admired rather than seen as point of competition Possible Action: buy items because of style rather than label snob value; use TradeAid shops/don’t buy labels made in sweat shops; create your own items; buy an item for someone too poor to afford it; choose to buy less; limit yourself to the number of shoes you have at any one time; for every dollar you spend on yourself give the same amount away; have regular days when you don’t use accessories/labels/make-up to test yourself making sure you don’t become reliant on them. World Cup Soccer: Creation – creativity, beauty, a reminder of shared humanity, pursuit of excellence, teamwork Fall – competitive selfishness, breaking rules and physically injuring opponents to make things easier for your team, over-emphasis on winning (pride) at the expense of losers, arrogance, corruption of some players and officials for money; obsession with the game by fans at the expense of more important things Redemption – fair team and fairplay awards; team can bring hope and lift spirits of a nation with little else to hope in (eg Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, …), individual players showing courageous acts of kindness to opposition at potential cost to themselves, teams learning to lose and win graciously and not lay blame on individuals Future Hope – remember that the 90 minute game is not the all-important thing but rather that there is another Game which can have multiple winners and the result is not about how many goals you score but rather how you play the Game. In parable of talents the servants are not compared with each other but rather are treated on their own merits – emphasis on being faithful and using what they had rather than achieving a certain result Mat 25 Possible action: don’t support a team just because they’re more likely to win; ask yourself: Do you spend too much time watching sport on tv? Use the opportunity to watch with others; don’t slag off at players because they make a mistake – be gracious in defeat and victory
Money & Poverty Creation - God placed all resources in the care and stewardship of people - the eco-system was complete Fall - at the fall people started to seek domination of others and to find their value as people in things other than God - material wealth featured highly as an area to achieve this in Redemption - Jesus says it is hard for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of heaven, Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what
belongs to God - money had image of Caesar, people have stamped on them the
image of God - therefore give selves to God. Jesus says: Blessed are the poor,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven ! and woe to you who are rich for you have
already received your comfort! Lk6:20, 24 Future Hope - To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life Rev 21:6 - eternal life and its acquisition has nothing to do with money; all things come from God & he will equitably distribute resources in the new kingdom, therefore money has no lasting value. Jesus also praised the shrewd manager for working his financial affairs in order to improve his relationships with others Lk 16 Possible action: sponsor a World Vision child, live generously - be the first to buy a round of drinks! Send any tax return refund to a charity, pay for your solo mum friend to have a decent holiday, give food to foodbanks, always give paper money to people who come collecting at your door,… Non-Christian friends: Creation - all people have been created in the image of God, therefore all are of value Fall - Even after the fall, all still retain the image of God Gen 9:6 everyone begins as a non-Christian because everyone begins by rebelling against God Redemption - For the Son of man did not come to be served but to
serve & to give his life as a ransom for many Mk 10:45 Future Hope - the end for those who don’t know God is to be greatly feared - 2Thes1:8-9. Likewise life with God at the end of time will be unbelievably good. If we believe this we cannot be a true friend without this somehow flavouring our relationship with those who don’t yet know God. Possible Action: follow Jesus example of spending much of your time with so-called ‘sinners’; pray for your friends; be honest and open about God with them; sacrificially serve your friends as Jesus would do if he were in your shoes. Free Market Political system: Creation – we were made by God to exercise our rights to choose and to use our creativity, which is encouraged in Free Market Fall – we are also corrupt and prone to selfishness and abuse of power, information is not available to everyone, and in practice everyone not able to participate equally – unfair distribution Redemption – Jesus treated with dignity those who didn’t make it in their economic system; he also encouraged sharing and trusting God to meet your needs (Mat 6:33). Need to encourage a measure of Free Market so as not to stifle our positive creative human attributes but also place checks against abuses (eg minimum wages & conditions, anti-competitive laws and legal protection for those susceptible to 'sharks’) . Allow people to make their best contribution but supplement income for those whose contribution is not highly valued in dollar terms (eg writers/artists, nurses, mothers,…) Future Hope – One day we will be answerable to God as to how we used what we were given for the common good. (eg parable of sheep & goats, and Good Samaritan) Therefore ultimately its not a legalistic issue but rather one of keeping in the spirit of working towards the common good. Possible Action: choose to vote for the party whose policies align closest to the above OR choose to vote for an influential individual who embodies these things (someone who is keeping in the spirit of seeking the common good) rather than someone who would most benefit you directly. 18 July, 2002 While watching the World Cup final between Brazil and Germany I saw a banner which declared that "God is a Brazilian". I tried to imagine God as a Brazilian, playing the samba, dancing and singing and running around barefoot, playing soccer with his friends down at the beach. It’s quite a different picture from the austere God who frowns and watches passively from a distance, not really getting involved. We all have some sort of picture of God in our heads, and you can be sure that it’s skewed in some way. Our picture of God has a huge effect on how we live, but amazingly we aren’t that intentional in doing our best to make sure we’ve got an accurate picture. Most of the time our energies go into working out how we should live rather than worrying about who God is. I like the story in Acts 22 where the Apostle Paul told his listeners how he had come to start following Jesus. He says: "About noon as I came near Damascus suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me: ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’ ‘WHO ARE YOU Lord?’ I asked. ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting’… ‘WHAT SHALL I DO Lord?’ I asked. ‘Get up’ the Lord said, ‘and go…’ " Paul asked two very important questions: ‘Who is God?’ and ‘what should I do?’ As I said earlier, it seems to me that we spend too much time trying to work out what we should do and not enough time working out who exactly is this God. I’ve got a feeling that if we could get a better idea of what sort of person this God is, our second question (‘what should we do?’) would fall into place a lot easier. We’d pick up the flavour of what things are important and what things aren’t. So over the next wee while I’d like to examine some aspects of who God is, and help us answer the question, What is God really like? We’ve already had a look at the ‘Big Picture’ (creation, fall, redemption, future hope) as a framework for making sense of life. Looking at the character of God will hopefully give us another good framework that we can use to help us understand life better and help us make decisions on how we should live. So until next time, don’t forget to take time out to spend with God – but to do that, you might need to take your ball and meet him down at the beach. 12 August, 2002 If you had to, how would you describe God? What is God like? Maybe you’d describe someone who is understanding, all-knowing, powerful, very available and compassionate. These seem like good God-type qualities. But there’s another characteristic that I find hard to grasp – it catches me a bit by surprise. It’s found in Philippians 2:5-11: Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God to be about seizing and grasping, but poured himself out, taking the form of a slave, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he took the lowest place and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place… This passage tells us that Jesus, who was in the form of God, chose to take the form of a slave. Stop and think about that for a moment. A slave was available for service at any time, day or night. He worked hard for the best interests of those he served, and he received no great recognition, he had no rights. The thrust of his life was to work for the benefit of others. It astounds me that here in Philippians, we are given the model of a slave as the one which best epitomises what it means to be like God. That’s just not what we expect from a ‘God’. But for Jesus, being God-like meant choosing to put aside his honour and riches and rights and reputation in order to serve people. He poured himself out for others, right down to the last drop of blood. He made an excellent slave. Who is living like this today? Politicians? Corporate executives? Pop stars, movie stars, sports stars? If I had to generalise, I’d say these high-profile ‘important’ people aren’t exhibiting this God-like quality. Rather, it’s that group of people called Mothers. They are leading the way in living out this selfless, serving, others-oriented lifestyle. Much of their work goes unrecognised and unrewarded, but they are team players who do it all for the love of their family. It’s just scandalous to imagine that, as a generalisation, God is best represented by this ‘class’ of people. But maybe the real scandal is that we are called by God to follow their lead. So, when you’ve been working hard for others and have been taken for granted 20 times and its only 10am, you’re on the way to following the lead of Mothers. But don’t despair – it’s a good lead. It’ll take you right into the heart of God. after a lengthy break of ‘writers block’, it must be time to get back into this! And time to look at another aspect of who God is
In some ways, it seems to me that this is how it is for God, too. For whatever crazy reason, God has set his attention on us. He is a staunch, devoted, fanatical fan of us! Every new day starts like a new game. God sees our exciting potential and says to himself, ‘maybe today they’ll really turn it on’. The game begins. There’s a lot of midfield play as we settle into our pattern for the day. We show a flash of brilliance and it gets God on the edge of his seat. We make a breakthrough, fending off the opposition. Now we’re through down the middle, and it’s just a footrace to the tryline. We keep our eyes focused, our legs pumping and…it’s a try! God has now leaped off his seat, screamed out a victory ‘yeeeehaaa!’ and begins the rounds of the heavenly high-fives. And the singing and dancing begins. But it’s not over yet. We begin the 2nd half, making some basic
errors. Our lapse in concentration costs us penalty after penalty. Our heads go
down. We quickly lose our belief in our ability to win this one. With 2 minutes
to go we drop the ball. The opposition has a scrum 15m out from the tryline.
We’re just holding out for time, sitting with that sick feeling inside that
we’re not going to make it. The opposition sells us a dummy, they go blindside,
and score a game-winning try under the posts. God, too, is disappointed. Like a true fan, he lives the agony with us. And it hurts. Words don’t do the pain justice. But at the end of the game, God rushes down to meet us as we come off the field. He’s waving our flag, he’s wearing our jersey, and he asks for our autographs. He’s got them from us before, but he wants to show us that he is a true fan, who will stick by us through thick and thin. Loyal. Fortunately, this ‘game of life’ is not a knock-out competition. It’s a very long league made up of many seasons. Some seasons we are enjoying a good run, and are well-placed up the table. At other times we end up in a relegation battle. However we go, there is one thing we can be absolutely sure of: our biggest fan will go with us, home and away, cheering us on and sharing the agonies and ecstasies of our life. Because he is loyal. His allegiance is with us. That’s just his chosen lot in life. "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no
compassion on the child she has borne? |
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