St. Patrick’s faith

Here are some thoughts I recently shared with my congregation regarding St. Patrick’s faith:

If we were to try to guess who St. Patrick was from the festivities that take place on March 17, we would come up with something like:  He was an Irish guy, who liked green beer, shamrocks, leprechauns, and parades in Boston’s south end.   There is more to the man St. Patrick, of course, than these things.  You don’t become the Patron Saint of an entire nation just for wearing green.

Magonus Sucatus Patricius, later to be known as St. Patrick, was born in Britain sometime around 390 A.D. to fairly well off land-owning parents. Patrick’s first trip to Ireland was not voluntary.  His family’s estate was located on the western side of Britain which made it susceptible to raids from Ireland.  Around the age of 16, Patrick was taken prisoner by Irish raiders and brought to Ireland as a slave.

During this dark time in his life, Patrick’s faith began to grow.  When Patrick’s life on the family estate was taken away, Patrick turned to the eternal life that thieves can not steal. Eventually Patrick escaped and, after a time in Europe, returned to his family home.  His family urged him to never leave again and oversee the family estate but Patrick had learned to:  “Trust in the LORD with all your heart – And He will direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5).” Amazingly, Patrick felt the Lord directing his path back to Ireland to share Christ with the very people who enslaved him.

Patrick actually wasn’t the first bishop of Ireland.  A man named Palladius went to Ireland before Patrick but died in only a year.  Ireland was a dangerous place and the local druids were hostile to Christians, but Patrick was unfazed.  Around 432 AD Patrick was appointed bishop to the few Christians in Ireland.  Once there, Patrick began a ministry that lasted 40 years.  He eventually converted the high king of Ireland and won many confrontations with the druidic priests.  He traveled the island preaching, baptizing and establishing churches.  By his own admission, Patrick baptized thousands.

Patrick’s story shows how tribulations, in the hands of God, can be a tool of transformation. His life displayed the truth that God directs the paths of those who acknowledge Him. Unfortunately, Patrick’s life of faith is largely lost in legends and the holiday that is held in his honor. But now that you know Patrick’s story, let it inspire you to persevere and trust in the Lord.

 

Kingdom Culture – Humility

Luke 14: 7-11. 7 And Jesus began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them,  8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him,  9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place.  10 “But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you.  11 “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

 

We live in a culture of self-promotion.  Whether in business, social, or academic contexts our culture encourages us to promote ourselves and increase our standing.  In order to climb the corporate ladder or to increase our marketability we seek out influential people and places.  Prestigious titles, degrees, or positions can sure open a lot of doors.

In Luke 14:7-11 Jesus was at the house of a leading Pharisee when he noticed that the invited guests were “picking out the places of honor” at the table (7).  In Jesus’ time there was greater emphasis on honor and seating arrangements were just one of the many ways to display one’s social standing.  The better places at the table brought more honor, which opened more opportunities.

As the guests were vying for the best seats, Jesus began to talk about another type of dinner – a wedding feast (8).  At a wedding feast one should not take the seat of honor because it would be very dishonorable if someone with greater standing displaced you and then only the last seat remained.  Instead, go to the last place and allow the one who invited you to honor/promote you.  The point of this “hypothetical” situation was to illustrate that “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (11).

In contrast to the honor-seeking culture of the day, Jesus was giving a lesson in Kingdom culture.  The kingdom of God was often depicted as a wedding feast and God (the host) opposes the proud (Is 2:11) but prefers the humble (Ps 37:10-11).  In Kingdom culture, one humbly repents and receives the honor of citizenship through Christ the king.  In Kingdom culture, one forgoes self-promotion and leaves it up to God to give honor.  The humility of Kingdom culture was not just decreed by God but displayed, when Christ left his place of honor and became a servant of humankind (Phil 2).

As citizens of Christ’s kingdom we follow and promote Christ, who himself followed a path of humility knowing that God would exalt him.  Are we displaying the Kingdom culture of humility in the people, places, and positions we seek?  Are we content with taking out the trash at church, with serving instead of leading, or with being passed over for recognition by people – knowing that our standing is determined by God?  The degree to which we have taken this Kingdom culture to heart will be reflected in the places we seek and the one we promote.

 

Social Networking Sites a Boon to Linguistics?

A couple different social network postings are making the rounds that remind me of the linguistic canon “Context is King.”  The meaning of a word is largely determined by the context in which it appears.  Our minds assign meanings to words only partially based on the actual letters of the word.  The following little paragraph illustrates this:

“AOCDRNDICG TO RSCHEEARCH AT CMABRIGDE UINERVTISY, IT DSENO’T MTAETR WAHT OERDR THE LTTERES IN A WROD ARE, THE OLNY IPROAMTNT TIHNG IS TAHT THE FRSIT AND LSAT LTTEER BE IN THE RGHIT PCLAE. TIHS IS BCUSEAE THE HUAMN MNID DEOSNOT RAED ERVEY LTETER BY ISTLEF, BUT THE WROD AS A WLOHE.”

 

The second little ditty touches on the enormous semantic range of some words.  The same word can have almost opposite meanings in different contexts.  Students of Greek will think of the preposition επι when reading the following paragraph:

“This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is ‘UP.’  It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v]. It’s easy to understand UP, meaning “toward the sky” or “at the top of the list,” but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends, brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen… We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing:  A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP!  When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, the earth soaks the rain UP.  When it does not rain for a while, things dry UP. One could go on, but I’ll wrap it UP, for now . . . my time is UP! Now I’ll shut UP!”

For those whom precision trumps humor, we must concede that many of the above instances of UP would fall under the same semantic domain: a verb intensifier (how the Piel form functions in Hebrew).   Nonetheless, the above two social networking posts demonstrate that context is the key to assigning meaning. Lessons in linguistics come UP even on Facebook, but it is UP to us to be looking!

Book Review of “God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment.”

God’s Glory In Salvation Through Judgment: A Biblical Theology. By James Hamilton. Wheaton: Crossway, 2010, 640 pp., $40.00.

With God’s Glory In Salvation Through Judgment, James Hamilton has waded into the centuries-long debate concerning the center of biblical theology.  Hamilton responds to many contemporary scholars who have abandoned the quest for a center to biblical theology with the thesis that God’s glory in salvation through judgment constitutes that center. While the beginning and ending chapters discuss the nature of the debate, the greatest portion of the book “highlights the central theme of God’s glory in salvation through judgment by describing the literary contours of individual books in canonical context with sensitivity to the unfolding metanarrative” (44).  However one views the merits of positing the central theme to biblical theology, Hamilton’s chief contribution is in tracking this theme throughout the canonical texts.

Hamilton makes a strong case that God’s glory in salvation through judgment is, at the very least, one of the primary themes of scripture. A comprehensive biblical theology of this theme is therefore an important contribution towards balancing a big-picture understanding while studying particular books.  God’s Glory In Salvation Through Judgment could therefore serve as a “big-picture” reference tool to anyone studying the themes of God’s glory, salvation, or judgment.

Many proposed centers of biblical theology have sunk in the quicksand of the wisdom literature.  While Hamilton’s thesis sputters a bit in the wisdom literature, it fairs far better than many other purposed centers and remains viable.  An example of this viability is Hamilton’s observation that the book of Job addresses the “mysterious, hidden nature of the justice and mercy of God” (305). Hamilton’s interaction with the Song of Songs is not as strong.  He makes recourse to the serpent-seed motif of Genesis and the Song of Songs as a picture of the reversal of “the outworkings of the curses on the land and gender relations” (305).   This understanding is problematic because the biblical writer does not employ many lexical links that would clue the reader into this intended connection.  Although Hamilton similarly imports the serpent-seed motif of Genesis elsewhere, only in Song of Songs is it an important support for his thesis.

The only other problematic aspect of Hamilton’s work is he often seems to uncritically accept suggested chiastic structures when outlining a particular book. The most glaring example is in the book of Revelation (544).  Although the questionable chiastic structure supports his thesis, in a book such as Revelation God’s glory in salvation through judgment is so strong that even reservedly offering such a questionable chiasm detracts from his argument.

The above weaknesses aside, Hamilton fastidiously avoids side issues and continually draws the data back to the proposed theme.  The result is not only a strong argument but a cohesive work despite its large scope. Readers will benefit from Hamilton’s contribution to biblical theology even if they are not fully convinced of his proposed center.  Hamilton powerfully argues that God’s glory in salvation through judgment permeates the canon of scripture.

A NEW Year.

Here are some thoughts I recently shared with my church:

What do you want to accomplish in 2011?  At the beginning of each year, most of us think about how we would like to improve our lives.  Some would like to spend more time with family, others want to grow spiritually.  But I can tell you ahead of time that this new year will be just like the past year – UNLESS you actually do something different.  In other words, if you don’t like the results of 2010, try something different in 2011.

My private time with God was not as consistent or deep as I wanted in 2010.  If 2011 is to be different, I have to make a different plan and actually act on that plan.  How about you?  What area of your life do you want to personally improve?

Different results require different actions for our church as well.  Although CSBC attempted some new outreach in 2010, we still did not baptize as many new members as the ones who passed away.   We should not expect those results to change unless our actions change.

What should we do differently as a church?  What should we do differently as individuals?  These are complex questions that must be answered through much prayer, reflection and conversation.  Nonetheless, an answer is needed.  Will you join me in asking the Lord for guidance this new year?

As we begin this new year we already have some information to guide us into 2011.  We know that our church and our lives are currently set up to produce the exact results we have been getting.  If we want different results in 2011, our actions must be different from 2010.

1 Enoch

I am currently researching the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the temple. This area of inquiry includes reading through some intertestamental literature in order to find any connections/antecedents to New Testament concepts.  I just finished 1 Enoch and was surprised how similar the “thought world” of 1 Enoch is to New Testament apocalyptic thinking.  Nonetheless, precise textual/lexical connections to the New Testament are difficult to make because the extant manuscripts are mostly in Ethiopic.  For many researchers (this one included) who don’t understand Ethiopic this requires reading an English translation of an Ethiopic rendering of an original Aramaic or Hebrew manuscript.  In addition, 1 Enoch probably was composed in several stages over the span of at least two centuries.

While precise lexical connections are difficult, general concepts can survive the translation process.  One such concept is the Messiah’s relationship to the final judgment.  Although this is not an area that directly relates to my research, it is a prominent NT theme.  For anyone studying Messianic expectations in the Second Temple period, Book 2 of 1 Enoch is a must read.  Below I have pasted my notes on 1 Enoch, (as contained in Charlesworth’s Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Vol. 1) listing some of the main concepts.  Perhaps they will be helpful to someone. (???)  Merry Christmas!

1 Enoch

Book 1

Ch 1-5:  Judgment coming for righteous and wicked: For the elect, blessings and inheriting of the earth.  For the wicked eternal destruction.

Ch 6-8: Wicked angels take human women and teach humans many mysteries that lead to increased wickedness.

Ch 9-11: Through good angels, God will execute judgment and cleanse (bless) the earth.

Ch 12-16: Vision of Judgment.  Enoch intercedes for Watchers, receives vision of continued judgment. Vision of heaven and throne room – lots of fire! Spirits of heaven.

Ch 17-23: Enoch’s tour of Earth’s functions, tour of Sheol, then the place of final punishment.  Names of angels.

Ch 24 -25: The tree of life and the throne (mountain) of God.

Ch 26-36: Jerusalem and surroundings.  Fragrant trees and mountains on journey to the 4 compass points.

Book 2

Ch 37-39: Judgment of wicked.  The home of the righteous is under the wings of the Lord.

Ch 40 : The 4 angels of God’s presence.

Ch 41-44: Enoch shown mysteries of how cosmos works.

Ch 45: New heavens and new earth.

Ch 46-54: The Son of Man (Elect One, Pre-existent One, Messiah) and his coming judgment.  51:4 “On that day the Elect One has arisen.”

Ch 55-56: Judgment on fallen angels.

Ch 58: The righteous will be in the light of eternal life and darkness will be no more.

Ch 60-70: Mysteries of nature. The coming flood judgment on fallen angels and rulers.

Ch 71: Vision of heavenly house of God: fire, crystal, light.

Book 3

Ch 72-82: Sun, moon functions, and days. Astronomical laws.

Book 4

Ch 83-90: Dream Visions recounting history of Israel (using animal imagery and sheep for Israel) from flood to Maccabean revolt, then looking forward to Messiah.

Book 5

Ch 91-107: Exhortation to righteousness.  The Apocalypse of weeks.  Woe to sinners. Righteous will live again.

Great Essay from Dr. Black

In the next couple weeks look out for my book review of James Hamilton’s new book, God’s Glory In Salvation Through Judgment.

In the meantime, here is a very good essay on  “doing church” from Dr. David Allan Black.  Dr. Black makes some great observations in the book of Ephesians.  He reminds us that one of the most important aspects of our ecclesiology  is our “hekastology.”  Here is the link:  http://www.daveblackonline.com/how.htm