Approaching the Text

Taking a New Testament course focused on Acts through Revelation at Fuller Seminary will naturally lead anyone into a study of Paul. From the reading that I have been doing, my interest has peaked and I have been approaching some incredible questions that have been paramount for me in adding more depth to the written Word…
Why does Paul rarely talk about the Kingdom of God (Jesus' favorite topic...)? Why does Paul always use the title "Christ" (when Jesus never uses it...)? How do Paul's Pharisaical tendencies manifest themselves in his theology and then into his writing? How did Paul's Hellenistic (Greek) culture, ruled by the Roman Emperor, with huge Jewish influences impact his thoughts on Jesus? How is the "old perspective" and the "new perspective" on Paul to be approached as we share the Gospel? Why did Paul rarely quote Jesus? Why are the three Damascus road accounts in the book of Acts share such differing views? How are we to handle Paul's Damascus experience as written in Galatians compared to his Damascus experience in Acts 9? Which is the primary account of Paul's life, Acts or his letters? Why does he seem so different in Acts and in his letters? And the biggest questions for me surround what we are to do with Israel and God's promises to Israel in light of Paul’s conversion? Did Paul still embrace his Pharisaic Judaism? Did Paul want to start a new faith away from Judaism? Was he trying to reform Judaism?
The beautiful part behind this class is that answers are not valued. (At Fuller there is probably a 50/50 split between people who value answers and people who value questions.) The questions are especially beautiful in this class because there are so many wise approaches to answering these questions. If there was only one answer given to some of these questions, then wisdom from many voices of historical Christianity would be left out. The depth intertwined in the written Word and these historical voices continue to inspire me as I study different forms of criticism (form, redaction, historical, narrative) and get to know different players in new ways who have contributed to God's written Word. Their personalities shine. For so long I was instructed that the Holy Spirit was the force whom penned the text. Recognizing that God used not only the Holy Spirit, but also these men, and there personalities, and their character, and their Meyer Briggs polarities, and their passions, and their beliefs, to form this mysterious Word, compels me. It compels me that we too get to participate in this reality that we find ourselves in...What a gift that God includes us in the formation of history! What a gift that God loves the world! What a gift that we, the church, get to partner with God to share God's love for the world and for individuals who dwell in this world. For a long time now, it has been appropriate to completely remove and objectify oneself as one approaches the text. This was seen as the best way to “know” the text. What a gift it is that we live in a culture that values the subjective connection of our story into God's past, present and future story! Participation is no longer seen as sinful, while the opposite is. Thanks be to God.

A Visit to the Place We Dwell

Last Monday my parents arrived in Pasadena. We packed a ton of excitement into three days of spending time with one another. On Monday we went to In and Out and Whitney took them to Paseo Colorado while I was at class. On Tuesday, while my dad was doing buisness in LA, I took my mom to her first graduate class. She enjoyed the thinking and especially liked the professor. Tuesday afternoon, while Whitney was at work, I showed my parents around Old Town and as soon as Whitney got out of work we hopped on the train and headed down to Hollywood to see Jimmy Kimmel. TO make a long story short, they let 250 in to watch the show and we were numbers 251-254! It was so tragic that it was funny! So while we didn't end up getting in the show, we did have a fun time at Philipes and walking around Hollywood. Wednesday morning my dad and I teed off at 6:30 in the morning and while we froze our tails off during the first 9 holes, we thawed out in the back nine and had a great time. I cooked a big dinner on Wednesday night as we celebrated Whitney's birthday and then we sent my parents on their way on Thursday morning. It was short and sweet, but the conversations were wonderful and we got to give my parents at least a taste of the place in which we dwell.

Jimmy Kimmel

If you get a chance this evening, be sure to watch Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC at midnight. My parents are in town and we are going to take them down to Hollywood to see the show!

Apologizing to a Generation

Kids used to be the most important resource for a culture to accumulate. Kids meant security, hope, family, and most of all a future. Over the past fifty years, things have changed. Kids are no longer the most important resource in our American culture. In fact... kids are quite the opposite. Kids are now seen as hurdles to gaining more important resources like cars, vacations, homes, and of course financial security. Kids get in the way of members of the American culture growing their own personal Kingdoms and have therefore been left abandoned by adults. Adults have left kids, especially adolescents to fend for themselves. To prove themselves to be worthy to assimilate into a culture of personal Kingdom growers. Adult number one would say to child number one, "If you do well, if you get this degree, if you make this grade, if you attain to this standard, then I will count you worthy as a personal Kingdom grower as well and you can be just like me." I'm sorry to this generation. We have abandoned you and left you to fend for yourself. I'm sorry for the pain that this has caused in your life and in the life of those whom surround you. I'm sorry to the person who sent me this e-mail after hearing that I was the new guy at GPC through an e-mail that I had sent to all students.

"Does this mean you're going to be the new youth pastor? How long do you intend on staying?"

How long do you intend on staying... I'm sorry that it is so right of you to ask this question. There is something dehumanizing about this situation. Whar are we doing to our students? We are sorry.

Continuing the Triangle

I also wanted to highlight an e-mail that I recieved from my Grandma regarding worship... Her thoughts are always well stated...

My opinion: There is a stiffness or rigidity to the common format of worship that seems to leave so many (especially the relatively new or the self obsorbed old believer) with a longing for more. An hour of hymn, message, and communion can be very uninspiring when we focus on the ritual. If that is the only contact with our Lord it is surely insuffiecient. However we may consider that there is more to many believers "ritual" than the Sunday (or rFri-Sat-Wed) service.
>
>How can the current church satisfy all the differing attitudes and still convey the importance of community? That seems to be my most current concern.
>
>We focus on specific aspects of our worship experience BUT perhaps that is where the difficulty originates. If we FOCUS of the living GOD--present in ALL our worship experience--and do not feel it important to "entertain" perhaps the "new and self obsorbed old" could learn from us.
>
>Think about it. Would a symbol of the trinity, or the chalice and loaf, or a combination of the symbols and the songs really make a difference?
>
>Christ is either known to be present OR NOT. We need to give the worshipping throng a sense of the glory of God. Therein lies the challenge. Weekly breaking bread is a place to begin as long as it is a fresh >experience and the one taken with us as we leave the hall.
>
>Perhaps serving at the door as the communicants leave would add a sense of "take me (JESUS) with you.
>Why do we think that the table needs to be at the front? OR
>
>Perhaps rearranging the sanctuary so that communicants sit around the table would give a deeper meaning to the "broken bread and cup".
>
>All these things have been tried over and over. As I see it the most conspicuous problem is understanding discipleship. We must learn to extend a greater challenge to LEARN the WAY of JESUS... so that the scripture in Acts 17: 26 ---and He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.
>17:27--that they should seek GOD, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us, "For we also are His offspring."
>17:28---for in Him we live and move and exist as even some of your own poets have said, "For we also are His offspring."
>17: 29---- Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of by man. but
>17:30----Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent.
>
>(gold-silver- stone--art--thought of by man---= idols
>overlooked the times of ignorance------------= being able to go past our errors in thinking, our tendency to >want to raise graniose edifices and beautiful images--- ) my >interpretation.
>
>I truly love beauty--art--banners--edifices that still stand from days of yore BUT they are not vital to faith.
>I truly believe that the poets pen has created beautiful songs of praise to our Lord God--BUT-- if we had never heard one hymn, we would still sing praises to the God of our heart, when we come to know he is Real.
>
>Part of our real problem is that so many come to Christ and do not experience any real follow through with the need to learn what being a disciple really means. Therefore the rituals seem dry and useless and less >than stimulating. The idea of breaking bread with an "unseen" host is so commonly under estimated that the believer goes thru the ritual as tho' it were a tradition ONLY---completely missing the importance of the command to "Do this in Remembrance of ME".
>
>I have no idea what you are struggling with as you visit various traditions BUT I do know that the importance of making that triangle of Word-Chalice--and Presense real is not a new dilemma within the confines of organized church. Christ MUST be REAL to the participant for the "ritual" to have any significance.
>
>I believe for the "emerging" church, or whatever preference to LABEL comes along, the real work lies in giving Jesus a commanding relevance to any who wish to be considered disciples--followers--workers--believers.
>We must learn to walk close by the newly baptised or converted being well versed in our faith and the WORD so that we can answer with some authority and admit when we do not know--what God asks of us. As we grow in the personal committment to justice, kindness and love--we are then faithful disciples.
>
>Well you can see why this came in e-mail form rather than blog.
>
>I love you very much and am so delighted that you chose to follow our Lord who is the center of my life. I do pray you through it all---earnestly--to the end that your ministry will be most gratifying and your life (with all it's ups and downs--and there will be plenty) is truly blessed. Love Gramma

A Comment Response

My good friend Caleb Youngblood (I would recommend checking ou his blog and the thinking that he is doing. There is a lin to his page under my friends section.) left a comment on the post that I did regarding the worship triangle. I copied his comment and pasted it below. My response is the following paragraph.

Nick...I liked your post. However, can I ask a question about what you are saying? Is the center of the triangle where we need to be? I remember having a similar conversation about this a while back. Not everyone prefers the center of all of those three elements, but rather, lean towards better worship with one or two sides weighted heavier. So, how do we address that issue. I don't mean to disagree with you just wanted your insight about this question!

Caleb... As we look historically at "the triangle" I feel like different traditions at different times have been good at at least one of the points of the triangle. Sometimes, a tradition will take seriously two of the points of the triangle. And sometimes they will "do" two points of the triangle well. However, rarely has there been a centeredness within a tradition, and maybe this is another item to add to the conversation as we move ahead in the way in which we worship God. Maybe for people like me who have had such an emphasis on Word in worship, and such a lack of art and sacrament, could be more holistic worshippers if we were to move more towards the center. So is centeredness the point? A good conversation for us to have. I don't know if the point is the center, but maybe movement towards the center would be helpful for all. My gut intially thinks that centeredness in this narrow fashion is not THE point... but it may be A point in a long series of points that need to be discussed within the catholic church. Also, I feel like Word and Sacrament have often been mutually exlusive in the climax of the ritual and I feel like they don't need to be. Why does it need to be word or wine? Could it be word and wine? I would love to hear the stories of the past regarding these questions...

The Center of the Triangle

As I continue to feel blessed to have this opportunity to learn, I found myself engaged in a marvelous lecture yesterday given by Dr. Todd Johnson. Basically Todd lectured on the importance of the history of the power of the words in which we choose. He has set up this lecture with a simple diagram that consists of a triangle. Each point of the triangle represents the emphasis in which we put on the climax of our communal worship services. The three points are Word, Sacrament, and Art (typically in the form of music). We are then to plot a point within the triangle to catch a glimpse of the way that we worship. Being a part of the RCA for the past three years, the clear emphasis was been on the written Word. The point would probably lie towards the word side of the triangle, with more music than sacrament. Whitney and I have recently engaged in an Episcopal time of worship and the clear climax within this tradition is sacrament. There was a five minute homily, and everything in the service pointed towards the celebration of the communion table. It was a wonderful time of celebration, and there was something mysteriously beautiful about the Episcopal ritual that the RCA seems to miss. The point within the triangle would probably lie towards the sacrament, with more emphasis on art than Word. Whitney and I have also had the chance to go the Mosaic... A well known, multi site, young, artful, "emerging" but doesn't want to be labeled emerging kind of church. In this service the focus was clearly on the art. An artist painted while the teacher preached, there was a ton of music, and dance was also a part of the worship. At Mosaic, I would guess that the emphasis is on art, with a balance between Word and sacrament. Since Zwingli there has been a clear shift away from emphasis on sacraments, more towards the word. With megachurch world, there seems to have been quite the shift towards the climax of worship being in music. I am excited to engage in conversations that start to move the direction and the momentum of our worship towards the center of this "worship triangle." I think that the ethos of my generation longs for the center and is capturing the center in the midst of some positive dialogue, but there is more to do, to say and to write. I actually never got to the thoughts from Dr. Johnson's lecture yesterday... I will try to get those out by tomorrow. Have a great Wednesday in pursuing the center of the triangle!

Surrender

After some wonderful conversations with my friend Mark Frens, I have officially become a part of both the facebook and myspace communities. At first I felt like I was selling out (especially to my fellow blogspot folks!), but desiring to network within online communities in order to create synergy has taken priority. (Also, many people from GPC use mspace!)I'm not really sure how these other sites work yet but you can look them up at...

www.myspace.com/nickwarnes and I'm not really sure how the facebook one works... sorry, trying to learn this new stuff!

Transitions

The transitions continue... Just a quick update... I have been crazy busy this week working, going to classes and spending time getting our car back up and running. I had been tutoring Biology and Chemistry at a nice place called Stepping Stones for the past three months down in San Marino. Because the buisness was only 5 miles away, Whitney and I have gone without a car since September 17th and we have been ridign our bikes... Since before Christmas, I have been praying, thinking, and having conversations with people about a position that I was offered at Glendale Presbyterion Church (GPC). The position is an internship at the church in helping the high school student ministry program. (Also fulfilling the necessary credits that I need at Fuller for an internship.) This past Saturday I decided to accept the job and move forward with more transitions. I will be joining two other Fuller interns (one music guy and one middle school person still not hired) in loving the community of people involved with GPC. I am so pumped for the oppertunity to work with these new friends! So with all that in mind, the last 5 days have been filled with finsihing up work at the tutoring place, getting set up at the new church, getting our car going again, and oh yeah, classes. It has been crazy... Reminds me of our days back in the GRap! I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel of these transitions and I am very much looking forward to helping to realize potential within people at this new job. I would totally appreciate prayers and insight for these new relationships that I will be stepping into. Have a great end of the week! PEACE!

Ben Harper

I have really connected with this Ben Harper song for a long time... Thought that I would share the lyrics with you. I encourage you to read the lyrics while you listen/watch the video...



POWER OF THE GOSPEL

It will make a weak man mighty
It will make a mighty man fall
It will fill your heart and hands
Or leave you with nothing at all
Its the eyes for the blind
And legs for the lame
It is love for hate
And pride for shame

Thats the power of the gospel
Thats the power of the gospel
Thats the power of the mighty power
Thats the power of the gospel

Gospel on the water
Gospel on the land
The gospel in every woman
The gospel in every man
Gospel in the garden
Gospel in the trees
The gospel thats inside of you
The gospel inside of me

Thats the power of the gospel
Thats the power of the gospel
Thats the power of the mighty power
Thats the power of the gospel

In the hour of richness
In the hour of need
For all of creation
Comes from the gospel seed
Now you may leave tomorrow
And you may leave today
But youve got to have the gospel
When you start out on your way

Thats the power of the gospel
Thats the power of the gospel
Thats the power of the mighty power
Thats the power of the gospel

The Scapegoats of Systematic Cancer

How often has a problem, so intertwined in a mesh of broken networks, come and left a sense of despair in life? As I continue to encounter places where there is no answer... Where there is only confusion and a loss of direction, my frustration mounts. Many will say, Just live the question... Embrace the process... You need to have more faith… You need to be more focused on the Word… And so on... And this lingo has its place... But... What do we do when we have done these things and despair continues to be the most dominate force? This seems to happen not only on an individual level, but also on a community, national, and even global level. We get confused by a broken network of thoughts and actions and get left without direction or ideas. (A horrible place to be.) I think that I am learning that when these sorts of feelings arise, the problem is on a systemic level. There is something wrong with the system. Often, we humans try to solve systemic cancer with a scapegoat. (A person or two in which to place the blame.) Well, scapegoat syndrome seems to only put a band-aid on a broken femur. (Yeah Arnold… My governor!) (To take the idea of scapegoat to another level takes us to the question of how we make ourselves the scapegoats in various different contexts in order to avoid dealing with larger systemic brokenness. But this is another subject for another day!) Back to the broken femur… Why do we insist on scapegoating when we feel despair, lose direction, and have a lack of ideas? To avoid the essential pain that needs to occur when systemic cancer is addressed. Pain is necessary when entire systems change. Most humans will do anything to avoid pain.
I am confused about some realities that surround me on different levels. War. Money. Relationships. I feel despair. I have few or no ideas. I don’t know which direction I/we are going. Could it be that a portion of the reason that I am confused is because broken systems are involved? Have there been scapegoats? Have I made scapegoats? Have I been a scapegoat? Have a made myself a scapegoat? Do I make scapegoats to avoid the pain that comes with actually dealing with deep, dark, systemic brokenness? Many questions… We’ll see.

An Immanent Freak

Look out Cali, Mark Frens is here and he is taking over! He also started a new blog... Be sure to check him out at www.mfrens.blogspot.com.

A Potential Shallow Peace

With the assitance of a book called The Openness of God (a book that makes Fuller, for the conservative, too liberal), I have been reflecting on the potential unhealthy overlap that followers of Jesus have constructed regarding faith, peace, and the sovereignty of God. In my personal experience, when life has brought forth difficult tangents, I have often rested on the foundation of the sovereignty of God. I have also seen many people in the communities that have directly surrounded me take this same foundation as their "deepest level of peace". The question that continues to bombard my head is... What if sovereignty isn't the trump card called to bring the deepest levels of peace and health to humanity? What if finding our deepest levels of centeredness in the sovereignty of God actually leads to a shallow level of peace, or an "uncenteredness"? Where does Jesus fit into these questions? I don't know the answers, but if these questions have any truth to them, then a lot of unhealthiness that I have seen over the past years within myself and people who wear the sovereignty of God marker on their forhead sure makes a lot of sense.

Michigan

Whitney and I also had a blast while we were in Michigan. While Texas was filled with relaxation, Michigan seemed to be filled with action. (And both were very appreciated!) Most of that action came through visiting with different family and friends in different parts of the GRap. Some highlights of the 5 days in Michigan consisted of surprising Lindsay and Justin, more great food, Yesterdogs, conversations, good beverages, cards, a visit to the old church, and catching up with friends. Here are some more pics that will aid in sharing our vacation.

Texas

Whitney and I have had a blast running around the country for the last week and a half. We started in Dallas and asked the Walker's for a relaxing time while in Texas. We were so thankful that we just spent tons of time playing games, eating good food, and enjoying wonderful conversations. We got to spend time with Brandon's girlfriend Lauren, Aunt Bobby, Uncle Pete and also spent some quality time with Mary, Whitney's best friend. Some highlights to the week included greeting troops, Apples to Apples, Scrabble, appetizers, monkey bread, and my first hole in one! My 153 yard nine iron dropped in the cup on the 11th hole at Lantana. It was an amazing feeling and it was great to celebrate the shot with Mike and Brandon... We were all really excited. The whole week was wonderfully rehabilitating in leaving the craziness of Los Angeles. I'll attach some pics and write more about the rest of our trip later... Have a happy New Year!

Jacks Mannequin

A Rare Occasion

It isn't a common day that I get to go spend time with family for Christmas. Yet on this special day, a rare occasion, Whitney and I will be on our way to Texas for the holiday this evening. We can't wait! Potentially on more of a rare occasion, I come across a band that I recommend to people. I keep up well with film, but when it comes to music, I am always following behind the "hip" folks (I think that this just comes with old age!!! But... I feel so cool that I may have come across a band that might change your life and that I might be able to introduce to people. (It would be hysterical if everybody already knew about this band and that I really am behind!) Anyway, the band is called Jacks Mannequin. They are out of Santa Monica and one of my students told me about this band yesterday. I downloaded Dark Blue and it is a fantastic song. Be sure to check them out!

Angels We Have Seen On High

We used to go to the Festival of the Lights when I was growing up as a kid. It was a Christmas program at Calvary church in Grand Rapids and it always set the mood for the holiday season for my family. With expectations of a similiar program at the Crystal Cathedral, my grandparents took Whitney and I to celebrate Christmas this past weekend down in Anaheim. The best way to describe the show may be similiar to my past experience at Calvary, but on steroids. The program at the Crystal Cathedral did not only include the narrative (sort of) of the birth of Jesus, but also, live horses, camels, and angels flying high above our heads! We all enjoyed the show and agreed that this event needs to become a holiday tradition. We also spent time down in Old Town and around Fuller's Campus. It was a lovely weekend, and Whitney and I were spoiled by our grandparents. This week is filled with work until Whitney and I leave for Texas for Christmas on Thursday evening. We can't wait to be with family and to have some time to relax.

A Future Blog of Daddiness

The best news of the day is that Ben Polavin started a blog! Any time I get a chance to get inside his head, I take the opportunity and now I get to do it on a regular basis! Check him out at http://www.bpolavin.blogspot.com... I also added him on my links.

Absolutely Reflecting

Through listening to some new lectures via mp3 from a class that I will be taking over the next couple of months, I have entered into some reflection over the nature and history of absolutes. My first mentor, Mark Dewey addressed absolutes early in my understanding of reality. He had a wonderful point. He would say, "Nick, are there any absolutes?" Just to get him worked up I would say no... He would then respond with, "Really... absolutely? Are there absolutely no absolutes." I think that you get what I am saying. Regardless... Conversation on this topic continues to be prevalent in the lives of most evangelicals. (This conversation, however, may often be forced by overzealous evangelicals desiring to banish the false reality of absolute pluralism that they imagine surround themselves in their post-modern context.!.!!) I have been pondering this question more intently after Lyn TenBrink, of all people, came and sat down next to me at a party as I was by myself and cracked the joke, "Are you pondering the absolutes?" I laughed, but this retriggered a little somethin somethin inside of me that rooted back to the Mark Dewey days. So, back to this class, I liked what Dr. Ray Anderson was talking about. I will quote him by saying that "the absolute is known in the personal". I love this quote and I feel like we could run with this quote in a million different directions... But I would love to connect it to the idea of the "personalness" of story. I feel safe conjuring up the idea that if the absolute is known in the personal and that story is personal, then absolute can be transferred in story. We can then easily connect this to the Hebrew Bible and then to the story that continues in the life of Jesus and the New Testament and the early fathers, and the apostolic fathers, and then to the apologists, and the martyrs, and so on and so on and so on until we arrive at our point in time here in 2006. So what does this connection to story, and therefore to the absolutes mean for us here today??? I'm not ABSOLUTELY sure, but I do feel comfortable writing that I have never loved my wife more, I also know that the feelings of missing family and friends back in Michigan have never been more real for Whitney and I. I also know that while I have never been more skeptical of congregational Sunday morning worship, I love the church more than ever. These such things are personal, absolute, and mysteriously connected to not only my story, but to the stories of the past.

Korean Barbeque, Beans, and 10.2 megapixels

Our friend Jonny was so kind on Monday night and took us over to Korea Town, otherwise known as K-Town, for a night full of fun. He is a second generation Korean and told us all about the cultural practices of Korean Christians as they continue to in the process of assimilation into American culture. We had a blast all evening. The evening included, korean barbeque at Manna (a new stpale for all who come to visit LA), ice gream with green tea and beans, a stop by a beautiful mall and a late night game of chess. It was a joy to hear stories all evening. Yesterday was also a unique day. I have been desiring to buy Whitney a professional SLR camera for a long time. With the progress of technology, I learned that this was now a possibility for us. So... after doing my homework I bought Whitney a brand new Nikon D-80 SLR yesterday! I couldn't contain myself as I biked right over to her office, handle bars full of goodies, (camera, wide angle lens, tripod, bag, printer) and ran into her office singing Here Comes Santa Claus. It was funny to watch her as I knew that she wanted to jump out of her skin with excitement, but had her bosses all around her as I gathered a pack of people with my obnoxious singing. We played with it all last night and we are beginning to realize the power of the piece of equipment. I can't wait to see the potential that this camera releases in her. Click on the comparison photos for you of the mountains behind our house, as I stood in the same spot, from our Kodak camera and the D80. (Which, by the way, the Kodak that we were given for our wedding has been amazing and we will continue to use it for everyday type of pics.)

Growing Relationships

Whitney and I are thankful. For a weekend that included Settlers of Catan, a 1980's mustache and ski party, and Christmas Hymns, we feel blessed. I think that the heart beat of this feeling however, is something quite deeper than the action of "hanging out". I feel like it probably extends into a thankfulness that we have for new and growing relationships with so many new people. Here are some pics from the weekend, and yes, those mustaches are for real!

In Response

This post is dedicated to Justin Beck (and those whom dwell in the great white north) in response to his most recent post from Hudsonville, MI.

For the First Time...

With military industrial complex on my brain from a documentary that I have recently watched, and from viewing the live casting of the Iraq Study Group this morning, for the first time this morning the depth of complexity and mess of our current state of affairs in Iraq is REALLY sinking into my bones. I don't think that anybody really knows where we are going. Scary stuff.

Great Video

Be sure to check out Justin Beck's website and the video that he posted. Some powerful stuff.
http://beckjustin.blogspot.com/

Now and Processing Towards the Not Yet

Here is a research paper that I just finished on the paradoxical Kingdom of God for my NT1 class called Gospels at Fuller Seminary. The class was taken with D.A. Hagner and was very informative. Leave a comment, shoot me an e-mail, or give me a call if you would like to have a conversation about this good stuff. PEACE!!!

A bride and groom embrace in the promise of a covenant to one another. The change has happened. Two have become one. The love of the bride and groom is realized, yet there is something more to this mysterious celebration. While embracing and recognizing the beauty of the moment of promise to a covenant, the bride and groom also wait in anticipation, recognizing that their love is but a “mustard seed”, with potential to grow into “the largest of the plants in the garden”. Thus, there is also celebration and anticipation within the future of the love of the bride and of the groom on their wedding day. Similar to the realized and future celebration and hope that mysteriously manifests itself on a wedding day, so it is with the Kingdom of God. Even from the book of Amos, the Day of Yahweh was a day of expectation of the radical in breaking of God into history to establish his rule. The reign of God has come. The Kingdom of God has come and thus has established realized eschatology. Yet a paradox exists. While the Kingdom is realized, there is also a certain hope and celebration in the truth that more is to come. The reign is a process that will one day be manifested in a fuller sense. This is the future eschatological condition that humanity finds itself in. Thus we have a paradox. To gain a larger perspective on reality, this paradox must be embraced. The Kingdom of God is the dynamic reign of God and is both realized and waited for by the church. Also, the Kingdom is not either here, or not here. It is both here, and in the process of fully being here.
Biblically, this paradox is evident throughout the Gospels. Jesus tells stories that can often be confusing regarding the Kingdom. Some stories tell of a Kingdom that will be coming (future eschatology), and sometimes he speaks as if the Kingdom is near, or even here (realized eschatology). The best way to handle these different passages is to recognize whether Jesus is speaking of realized eschatology, future eschatology, or both. The following paragraphs will take a close look at this type of exegesis.
John the Baptist must be understood in order to understand realized eschatology. In chapter eleven of the gospel according to Matthew, he writes of a shift in reality that occurs through the coming of John the Baptist. Verse thirteen shares that an era has ended and has begun with John. This new time in space and reality is given the label “The Kingdom of God”. Matthew continues to develop thoughts regarding the Kingdom into chapter thirteen of his gospel. In verse thirty-three Jesus tells the parable of the leaven. This parable is of certain interest because it supports two opposite views. The first view, which has been the view of dispensational thinkers, speaks of the yeast within parable of the leavens as evil doctrine permeating an apostate Christian church. When the surrounding pericopes are taken into account, the dispensational view falls short when compared to the opposing view. The opposite view interprets the yeast as a beginning, not only to the Kingdom of God, but also to the process of the Kingdom of God coming in its fullest sense. In order for yeast to work within dough, it needs to be kneaded and kneading takes time, sweat, and effort. While the yeast seems small and insignificant, it begins to work through dough and becomes something more and more altering within the dough. The precise time and the precise action of how the future Kingdom will fully come has nothing to do with this parable. The parable is an announcement of realized eschatology and also embraces the mysterious process of the development of the Kingdom of God that is gradually occurring in the world here and now.
There is also ample material within the gospels that reveal portions of truth regarding the future eschatological Kingdom. Interestingly enough, both Bultmann and Bright agree that Jesus was not all that interested in having dialogue regarding apocalyptic instruction. While he was not interested in instruction, he did, however, share realities of what future eschatology will entail. Luke writes a dramatic account of future eschatology in his seventeenth chapter. (Similar to Matthew’s more detailed account in his twenty fourth chapter.) Verses twenty-two through thirty-seven include many interesting details. The first of the interesting details is that the timing behind the coming of the Son of Man will be mysterious. Luke writes that the coming will be like lighting. The second detail from this pericope is that there will be judgment for the individual at the second coming. George Eldon Ladd writes “Jesus really had little to say about the destiny of the individual apart from his or her place in the eschatological Kingdom of God.” With this in mind, Luke speaks of individuals being “taken away” towards the end of the chapter. (This idea aligns well with numerous visions of harvest and separation of peoples found in other portions of the Gospel.) In very end, the disciples ask where individuals will be taken at the coming of the future eschatological Kingdom, and Jesus responds with, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.” While many evangelicals picture a “rapture” of saints at this moment in time, Jesus seems to have a different perspective towards future eschatology. In Luke, Jesus describes the destiny of individuals who love God as being “left behind” while the others are sorted into a place of dead bodies and vultures.
The paradox of the eschatological Kingdom includes that the Kingdom is both here, not yet here, and in the process of coming more fully within time and space. Jesus often includes this paradoxical mystery in his teaching. A passage that represents the idea of a paradoxical Kingdom is found in the fourth chapter of the gospel according to Mark. Within the parable of the growing seed, Jesus speaks of a man scattering seed on the ground. This seed, similar to the yeast and the leaven, implies a “small” start to this new shift in reality called the Kingdom of God. Verse twenty-seven then describes that night and day the seed sprout and grows, though the man who spread the seed does not know how. This verse is representative of the ongoing process of the Kingdom and even alludes to God’s active work within this process outside of human effort. At the end of the parable, Mark writes that Jesus taught that a harvest would come, and that a sickle would be used on the ripe grain at the time of the harvest. Jesus here, of course, is speaking of future eschatology and the time of His return. Seedtime (realized) and harvest (future), both are the work of the sovereign God of the universe. Embodied within one parable we encounter the reality of both realized and future eschatology.
Matthew thirteen is another place where the realized Kingdom and the future Kingdom are taught simultaneously. In the parable of the sower, the Kingdom, once again, begins with the idea of seeds. (However in this parable Matthew adds the adjective good to tell his readers more about the condition of the seeds.) As the story continues, weeds that have been planted by the enemy also grow with the wheat. This is a reality of the realized Kingdom. Weeds and wheat from good seeds grow with one another. Raymond Brown parallels the weeds from the story as evil people whose stories will be intertwined with people of the Kingdom in this current state of realized eschatology. While there is a process of growth in the realized Kingdom, moving forward towards another radical in breaking, weeds are also present amongst the areas in life that seem to be representative of “good wheat”. Ladd recognizes that early scholarship missed the purpose of the parable by relating the field with only the church, and not the world. He continues with the idea that the Kingdom has come, but with the Kingdom did not come an uprooting of society. The stories of people, both good and bad, are bound together in the present world and only at the time of the future Kingdom will they be fully separated. This parable ends with a more detailed account of the future eschatological coming of the Kingdom. Again, at this time we see a time of judgment and separation. Ladd puts it best…
“This separation is sure to come. The Kingdom that is present but hidden in the world will yet be manifested in glory. Then there will be an end of the mixed society. The wicked will be gathered out and the righteous will shine like the sun in the eschatological Kingdom.”

The end of the parable aligns well with earlier thoughts from this paper found within Luke seventeen. The weeds will be gathered first at the time of this separation. The theology behind the weeds being bundled and burned while the wheat is gathered into the barn is for another time, but separation will assuredly take place within the framework of the future eschatological Kingdom. So again, within a teaching of Jesus, written down through the work of the first evangelist, as led by the Holy Spirit, embrace is encountered regarding the current paradox of the now and not yet Kingdom.
Through the Gospel writers, with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Jesus speaks of a present Kingdom, and of a future Kingdom. Similar to a bride and a groom on their wedding day, there is hope and beauty in both the realized condition of their love and of the potential in the future depth love that will miraculously grow deeper as time and space allow. Jesus’ eschatology also includes the likes of both the realized and the future. His realized eschatology seems to point in the direction of a “small” beginning. Yet in the midst of realized eschatology also seems to be a movement of process towards the future eschatological condition. The Kingdom is extending towards this unusual time when Jesus will appear in an enigmatic fashion and will seemingly judge the individual. There will be another radical in breaking and it will be miraculous. The Kingdom is not either here, or not here. It is both here, and in the process of fully being here. A holistic understanding of the teachings of Jesus leaves room for this mysteriously important paradox.

Gagging

The BCS is a joke.

Honestly... Is There Any Question?

OR






It is the beginning of the 4th quarter in the USC vs. UCLA game. UCLA is up 10-9 and I really only have one thing to say after watching both USC and UofM play... If we want a blow out for the BCS Championship game, we will let UCS play Ohio State. If we want to see a good game of the two best college football teams in the country, we will see a rematch of UofM and OSU on a neutral playing field in Glendale, AZ.

(And by the way... If Florida slips in ahead of UofM I will be busy gagging through the new year.)

Integrate Your Sphere

With finals around the corner (next week) times here will be getting busy. Fortunately I have finished all of my writing for the quarter, and now all I have to do is read and work through notes. I have one final on each of the first three days of the work week and I am looking forward to having a bit of a break after Wednesday. It's time to buckle in for the weekend!

Whitney and I attended my staff Christmas party last night. We had a fun moment as we took in all of the conversations from 30-40 different people who work as a tutor. (Many of them being from Fuller Seminary.) While we often make jokes about constantly being surrounded by a bunch of seminary "nerds", (of which we also regard ourselves...) we feel quite fortunate to be around a place where so many people want to give their lives to loving and caring for people. I am often skeptical when I hear Christians talking about their desire to care for the oppressed and the marginalized. While the lingo is great, I feel like there is a component to this language that "cool" in Christianese right now. Sometimes I especially feel this spirit about people after learning more about the fruit in which they bear on a daily basis. This concerns me, and has often left me bewildered. BUT... I feel like I have been encouraged in my skeptical nature as many of the people around us here have REALLY lived a life that is focused on unselfishly loving and caring for the poor and the marginalized. There is a difference in the way that these people think and live. (I have a long way to go to enter into this type of thinking, and don't know if I ever will. (Even though it is so "cool" right now to be this type of follower of Jesus. May that always be the case!) I don't know if everybody is called to this type of love as a top priority. But I might totally be wrong...Or I might be right... Or I guess that I might be both!) Widows, orphans, homeless, other nations, our nation, they live to help people, and here is the key... without the sole anticipation of extending God's Kingdom and not their own Kingdom as a sub-component of God's Kingdom. This is their heart. This is there "centeredness". This is their ethos. I am energized by these types of people and feel so blessed to be in their presence on a daily basis here at Fuller. As Whitney and I closed the conversation, we remembered that while Fuller is wonderful, but that it is also a bubble. (As is everywhere else. For heavens sake, WE LIVE ON A BIG SPHERICAL BUBBLE!) A key, as I am processing through, is to integrate our bubbles to move into a deeper level of reality, and therefore a deeper level of the Kingdom of Heaven. So you wanna know what heaven is like?.??!?? Here is a five step systematic plan to learning more about the future (and hopefully the realized) eschatology of heaven... (This is for those of you that are modern/enlightenment thinkers. If you didn't like the set-up of the spew of random information from the last paragraph, then you might just be a modern thinker and this nice list is for you!)

1.) Accept that you live in a bubble.
2.) Accept that you live in multiple bubbles.
3.) Accept that other people live in bubbles too and that no one else’s bubble is the same as yours.
4.) Humbly recognize the strengths and weakness of your bubble. (Hopefully one of the weakness isn't an ignorance to the beauty of other bubbles!)
5.) Integrate your bubble!
6.) Be unified in the diversity of your bubbles as you humbly and generously say to one another... "Welcome to heaven! Can I get you a piece of bread and a glass of wine?"